Silent Protector
by AcidRock
Summary: It has been a few years after the defeat of Talpa and the Ronin Warriors thought that they could at last rest. Yet, a new evil has plagued the mortal world in the name of Lord Sulron-and he has risen to spirit of Talpa to aid him.
1. Kamaree

--I honestly cannot believe I'm writing about this. Ronin Warriors.been a long time ago that I liked that show, and of course, it was a fleeting moment. From it though, did I create a female warrior of mystery to help the foolish and young boys with their quests and hopes. She was known as the Chosen One, or Kamaree (KAY-mar-ie), the protector of man and animal, wielding the power to heal and transform into any beast. With her in the quest to aid the Warriors: Naki (naw-KEY), King of the unicorn Mataree (ma- TA-re) race; White Fang, a white wolf, larger then any of his race, and known as the Chosen Wolf, Lumaree (LU-mar-ie); the Red Tail Hawk, Kalmir (call-MEAR), the Chosen Hawk, Taymaree (TAHY-mar-ie). (The names after the species are what they are called as that chosen animal. The names before are actual names.) Note: All Chosen animals and the Chosen One are all my creations, as well as the areas where they reign. Please do not use them with out my consent. All else belongs to the Ronins. :)  
  
Silent Protector  
  
.The Kamaree.  
  
A tall, young woman remains hidden within the shadows of a large ally, wrapped tightly in a course gray cloak. She is tense and alert, feeling and scenting the danger in the air. But her main concern are five boys, in mystical armor, surrounding a huge, Dynasty soldier, and one she has faced before. Her fair features remain impassive as she watches the Ronin Warriors, trying her best not to help.  
  
Yet under the drab cloak, she is donned with silver boots, the sides carved with the ancient language of Elden unicorn. The sides of the footwear halt at knee level, while a dagger resting in a silver sheath rests upon her right thigh. Silver crawls over her thighs like vines, protecting her. Silver armor covers her hips and torso, with high-cut over the hips and a swirling pattern over breast, in the shape of horns, tips curling in slightly. The back dips in deeply, ending at waist. A transparent satin cloth wraps around lower extremities, connected to edge of flexible silver, covered by a jewel embedded hilt within a long ebony sheath, the sword of the Kamaree. Vines cross around biceps, gleaming with different colors of the Ronins she has sworn to protect; red, orange, green, blue, and dark blue. Satin-like material cover hands and wrists, ending at elbows while embedded with the language of old. Shimmering platinum hair cascades down back, ending within middle, and braided at sides and joined together. Upon her forehead rests a crown like a silver star with a large diamond of rainbow within the middle. The edges of the crown vanish within the silvery locks, only to appear in the back, spread out like the feathers of a peacock, only the feathers are drawn into pointed spikes, eager to kill. Alas, wisdom flows through her, and the knowledge of death envelops her. A grievous sight is she, Kamaree---and dangerous.  
  
From the darkness, light glows from the behind Kamaree, swelling the misery as it grows. A tall, thin horse-like beast steps beside Kamaree, his white flesh gleaming with a silver luminance, while his spiraled horn shimmers. His long, silky mane flutters in a growing breeze. Lengthy tail is lashed against his smooth sides, impatience apparent. His black and blue eyes focus upon Kamaree, then land on the Ronin Warriors. Matara Naki knew that Kamaree wanted desperately to reveal herself to the Warriors and fight beside them, instead of hiding in the shadows, or giving her life for them when they know not who their savior is. But this act could not be done-it risked the Maree Council against the new danger developing.  
  
"Such a pity that such youths are to be used to battle against such evil," she mutters, hazel eyes landing upon Matara Naki. She had knowledge of his approach, but felt too harmed to greet. This unicorn had been angering her greatly. She did not understand why she was not allowed to fight beside the Ronin Warriors, and actually have them see her.  
  
His thin cranium is nodded, white tresses lashing against his long, powerful neck. His spiraled horn glistens under the fading light, as his body gleams valiantly. "Tis true, Kamaree, yet thou be young as well, and do not deny this. Youths can do miraculous things and should not be forgotten."  
  
"Aye, thou are correct, Lord Naki of the Mataree. Thy shalt not forget thee word, yet, I despair." She drapes the cloak tighter, though hand rests upon the jeweled hilt of her sword. Her attention focuses completely on the Dynasty soldier, noticing similar likeness to a Cralar soldier, a soldier from the Dark realm that is attempting to rule Earth's dimension.  
  
"And why so thy child?" responds Matara Naki, already knowing the answer. He knew that she would help them anyway, but does not mention her upcoming treason.  
  
"Must thy hide in darkness, just to watch these youths attempt such work, and yet not reveal thyself at all? What harm would thy do?"  
  
Silver hooves slip forward, landing without sound upon concrete. Whip- like tail lashes against his sides, tresses slipping down sleekened hide. "Thy have told thee why, child. Not even these warriors could comprehend a woman such as thee."  
  
"Such words sting, Lord Naki," she replies, moving from the unicorn lord, slowly gliding toward the Ronins. She frowns, enraged further at Matara Naki's excuse. Yet, she would not have much time to think about a unicorn's words.  
  
Bright red and black lightning rip apart the darkening sky. Thunder fills the gaps, rumbling enough to cause the earth to shudder. Suddenly, all the lights in the city flicker off then on and finally fades. The large structures begin to crumble from the earthquake. Crimson liquid ooze down the sides and pour into the streets. People scream and begin to flee anywhere for safety, only falling into an inescapable trap. Their fear and panic rises, and groups begin to tear at each other for escape. Roars of laughter fill the sky, nearly drowning the fierce, clamorous thunder.  
  
Yet, Kamaree does not feel such fear, even though it is surrounding her and presses in, attempting to rob her of her sanity. She can't fall into its unmerciful snare. She knew this would happen and had prepared for it- but she did not know it would be to this extent. Kamaree ignores the vision of suffrage and turns toward the five warriors and large dynasty soldier. She ponders to herself, 'Was this the one I had met before when saving these--boys from his wraith when they were parted? Thy not know though, and it seems to thee that the Dynasty and Cralar are growing slow, for their mercenary hath arrived before their doom.'  
  
"So, Kamatarie, we meet again!" Kamaree calls out, approaching the large, Dynasty solider. She gently parts the warriors of Hardrock and Strata. She briefly glances at the astonished faces of the males, though betrays no emotion. She concentrates on the hybrid soldier in front of her, keeping her cloak tight as a shiver runs down her spine.  
  
"Who are you?" demands Rowen of Strata, stepping to the side slightly. His New York tinted voice is unable to mask his surprise. He lowers his golden bow, focusing more on Kamaree then on the enemy.  
  
"I don't know," blurts the one of hardrock, also stepping back. "But if she knows this guy, then she can't be good!"  
  
"Just a friend," Kamaree replies, ignoring the Hardrock's comment. She reaches outward, lifting Strata's bow. "If you want to hit your enemy, it is best if your weapon is aimed at him, not the ground."  
  
"But."  
  
"Not buts. Shh. Introductions later, my friend." Her attention returns to Kamatarie, stepping forward, ignoring any other questions demanded of her. They were shocked, and she could feel it. She appeared out of no where to them. But they needed to keep their minds on the soldier and not on her.  
  
The soldier turns toward Kamaree, recognizing her instantly. He growls sinisterly, pulling out his sword. He lifts it upwards, then swings it down toward Kamaree's skull, snarling, "Err! Can I not rid of you, Kamaree? You are becoming more bothersome then the unicorn lord you have befriended!"  
  
Kamaree flicks back the cloak, tearing out her sword. She twists it upward, blocking Kamatarie's strike. Blades clash together with enough force to cause the earth to shudder worse then already. Buildings completely raze down, and glass shatters all over the pavement. Thick, crimson blood oozes into cracks and crevices, streams glinting as glass sinks to the bottoms. Kamaree ignores the gruesome catastrophe, chuckling and grinning maliciously, "Oh, Kamatarie, you are not frightened, are you? You know you cannot defeat me-Hybrid."  
  
"Vicious, Kamaree. These Ronin fools are weak. They will not be able to defeat my masters-even with your help. Why not join us and leave these foolish children and the Maree? Your power would be incredible-unbeatable. You could slay all five without doing much as flicking a blade!" Kamatarie hisses, shoving Kamaree back with all his might.  
  
"Really? They did not do that bad slaying Talpa before, did they not, Kamatarie? And why would I want to join your side? I have all the power I need right now. Remember that it increases every time I die, and I have perished 6 times thus so far. Anyway, I can defeat all five now without working a sweat-you know this as well," she retorts, pushing the Dynasty hybrid away from her.  
  
He stumbles back, causing Cye of Torrent and Ryo of Wildfire to scatter. He ignores the Ronins, gripping the hilt of his blade, readying for another attack. Kamatarie lunges toward Kamaree, sword thrusts toward her abdomen.  
  
She twirls her blade in a circle. He attempts another strike, but she blocks it, shoving it toward him and holding it upward. "You will not win, Kamatarie!"  
  
"Then if I cannot defeat you, then I will kill them! Expose yourself to children, and watch them die! Starting with Wildfire!" Kamatarie roars, quickly turning to Ryo of Wildfire, ready to strike. He lifts is sword above his skull, all his strength is casted into this swing.  
  
Ryo of the Wildfire attempts to leap backwards to miss it, but is not quick enough. Kamaree even could see that the strike would still meet with him and destroy him. Quickly, she calls upon the Lumaree within the Elden tongue. "Lumaree, lutarkee! Sasha kay! Tay cha sumaren!" Then, she launches forward, knocking Wildfire to the pavement; barely noticing him as the Sword of Kamaree shields him. Then, the white wolf, Lumaree, appears, bounding toward Ryo of Wildfire. He steps over the fallen and stunned warrior, protecting him from the Dynasty soldier.  
  
"Oh, this is fun," mutters Wildfire, trying to shove the wolf from him. He frowns, the canine looking too familiar for comfort. He casts the thought aside and finally manages to stand.  
  
Both Kamatarie and Kamaree battle with the elden tongue and sword. Steel again clashes against steel, driving each other backwards and forwards. His form was larger then she, twice the size in fact, if not three. He was beginning to win over her, and he would soon destroy her. He knew it, and cackled about it with glee. To crush this small woman would mean that his master and master's ally would be able to defeat this mortal world. After all, the Ronin Warriors could not defeat both Lords!  
  
"Suman cha tay-sulan cu!" screams Kamatarie, twisting the lithe figure of Kamaree against Cye of Torrent. She glances at him, unable to mutter apology. Kamatarie begins a course, harsh laughter. "You cannot win, Kamaree! Your pledge to protect these fools will end in your death!" Catching her off guard, Kamatarie swings is sword in a large arc, aiming for her exposed neck.  
  
She then twitches as she notices a glimmering golden arrow enter a colorless area where armor detaches. A gasp escapes from her throat, as another warrior in emerald drags her back before the demon's sword can slice her flesh. "You all right?" he mutters, lavender eyes gazing over her quickly before returning his attention onto the others and the dynasty soldier.  
  
She has not the time to reply, for he steps forward, attempting to help the others. He fights with the warrior, dachi clashing against medieval- like sword. The Dynasty soldier stumbles back from Sage of Halo's strikes, weakened by Strata's arrow. He manages to down Halo to the ground. He looms over the fallen warrior, blade aimed at Halo's heart.  
  
"Hey! I don't think so pal!" Kento of Hardrock slams his weapon into the side of the hybrid Dynasty soldier, knocking him off balance. The soldier turns to face Kento, but finds him missing. The others back up slightly to his confusion. Kamaree helps Sage onto his feet, small smile upon her lips.  
  
"You all right?" she asks him.  
  
"Never better," Sage replies, glimpsing at Kamaree.  
  
"What is going on?" demands Kamatarie, backing up from the others. He glances at each Ronin before pausing briefly at Kamaree. "Tell me!"  
  
Ryo of Wildfire brings the ends of his katanas together, and leaps into the air. "Time to fry," he replies. He begins his surekill, aiming at Kamatarie. "Flare-up-Now!"  
  
Kamatarie is engulfed in a fiery scarlet beam. He moans with death as he disintegrates, his steel armor melting from a formless body. And in his place is a large crack where Wildfire's power had trailed.  
  
"Ouch," someone comments.  
  
"That had to hurt," whispers Cye.  
  
"You toasted him, dude!" compliments Kento, grinning with awe.  
  
Yet, Ryo had something else on his mind besides a small valley where once a road stood. He turns toward Kamaree. 


	2. Lumaree

Remember that I don't own any of the characters of Ronin Warriors and places belonging to it. Yet Kamaree, Lumaree, Nashe, and so on are mine and are not to be used without my permission. Pretty much, if maree (mar-e) is in the name, then the character belongs to me. Also, the 'elden' language I created, so if it seems similar to any language you know, chill, I didn't know. Anyway.on with the story! :)  
  
.Lumaree.  
  
"Now," begins the one of Wildfire, panting heavily, clutching his abdomen. He stares at Kamaree, noting that she looked uncomfortably familiar to someone he once cared for. But this could not be her. Similar, though, too similar. "Who are you?"  
  
Kamaree dares not answer, trying her best not to show her uneasiness. A sigh departs from inside, her eyes closed, and head tilted forward. "How do I answer you? Do you not know who I am? After conquering Kamatarie, and still you not know?"  
  
"A---no! How are we supposed to know if we never saw you? Jeez, lady, you're psycho!" Kento of Hardrock bursts out, arms folded over subarmor.  
  
"He's got a good point, for once," adds Rowen of Strata, surprised look on his face. He steps forward, closing in tightly on the girl.  
  
"But she saved us, didn't she? I mean---" Cye begins but is cut short.  
  
"Cye, come on, how did she save us? She made the guy even angrier! Didn't you see?" retorts Kento, smirking.  
  
Kamaree faces Kento, features contorted into rage. Already she did not like this warrior. She knew she would have trouble with him, but already? They had just met!  
  
"Kamarlee tay Kamaree,  
  
Sue ta lee.  
  
Sah sha su maratache.  
  
Sah may luta rarela.  
  
Maluna she cu?"  
  
"What?" coughs Kento, completely baffled at her unfamiliar language.  
  
"Cry out woman of The Chosen  
  
Her words made known to thee  
  
Her life belongs to thee.  
  
I think that's it, and also she wants to know if you're so stupid that you can't figure it out.I think," adds Sage of Halo.  
  
"Stupid!?"  
  
Chuckles arise from the group, all except Kento. His face begins to glow scarlet with anger.  
  
"Boy, she's got you, Kento!" snickers Rowen.  
  
"You're correct, Sage of Halo. Amazing, one who knows of the elden tongue. That language is dead to most," Kamaree replies, turning toward Halo. "How you learned it, or however, I honor thee, for 'tis a language sweet, though harsh for common use."  
  
He remains speechless, not wanting to reveal that he honestly did not know how he knew such a strange language. Yet, he knew the words were spoken correctly. He could feel it in his heart.  
  
"Come White Fang, we have work to do," whispers the Chosen One, hand held in the direction of the white wolf. She wants to part from this place as soon as possible. Lumaree and she have committed treason against the Maree circle already. Their crimes they do not want to increase.  
  
"Wait," interrupts Ryo, taking her arm and turning her to face him. "We don't know your name."  
  
She sighs, glancing into his glittering tiger blue eyes, then turns her sight toward the ground. "My name?" she hesitates, unsure of what to say. She has committed treason so far. Should she add the charges? "Just call me Kamaree. My real name I do not give out, for it is forbidden. I am sorry."  
  
Ryo drags her out of hearing distance from the company, ignoring the strange looks from the other four and a harsh growl of the wolf. He makes sure that the others are out of hearing distance before beginning. "I know you, don't I?" he persists, staring harshly at her. His blue eyes are slitted, focusing, searching his memory. "Your looks are slightly different, but--I know you."  
  
Kamaree remains silent, eyes widened, staring into his. Quickly, sights are turned toward the earth once again. She attempts to yank her arm from Ryo's grasp, but is unsuccessful. "No, Ryo Sanada, you don't know me---"  
  
"Your name, just tell me your name!" he insists, clutching harder, as if his life depended on it. His mind would not let it go. "Don't lie to me."  
  
"If I told you---" she begins, twisting her arm from his grasp. Her hand lowers toward the dagger on her right thigh. "I can't tell you my name, or else it is the end--"  
  
"The end of what? Then how do you know mine?" His mind fills with confusion. He wonders why she is not allowed to speak her name-something simple. What is she, a spy-or maybe too worried that she will trigger something she does not want him to know.  
  
"I--I just do. Tis the way of the Maree, Wildfire. My name is Kamaree. Use that, please, I beg you---And let me be! I hath come to aid, not be questioned about irrelevant information." She turns from him, slate hued cloak whirling, and closing once more to shield the glow from her silver armor. She hesitates, glancing back toward her white wolf and calls to him. "Lumaree shu nah."  
  
With a throaty growl, he stirs from his sitting position. His ears are flattened against his skull; his ice colored eyes a light with acute rage. Crimson hued fangs snap in the direction of the one dubbed Kento, but shows no aggression towards any other warrior. He thrusts forward with a bark, trotting toward the Kamaree.  
  
"Whoa! God!" yelps Kento, stepping backwards from the wolf. "Thing tried to take a bite outta me! Did you see?"  
  
Rowen chuckles, patting Kento on the shoulder briefly. "I don't think he likes you, Kento."  
  
"Fine with me, just keep it away. Hey, look at White Blaze!"  
  
Suddenly, the white tiger blocks the wolf's path, fringed skull lowered, sable eyes upon the lupine. A snarl verges from his throat, then settles in silence. White Fang greets the same. Lips of his muzzle peel back, revealing glistening ivory fangs; his white fur bristled. He then falls into silence. Both creatures stare at one another, communicating with each other's thoughts.  
  
"White Blaze, what is it?" Ryo calls out, turning in the direction of his tiger. Confusion floods his face as he steps forward. Kamaree suddenly stops him. She wraps a hand around his shoulder, her silken glove nearly slipping off of his subarmor.  
  
"They are speaking, Ryo of Wildfire. It is best to let them be," answers Kamaree softly. She frowns, not understanding why both creatures would not allow her to listen. Never before has White Fang blocked her from his conversations.  
  
"What?" inquires Ryo, glancing at Kamaree, before vision returns to his tiger. "What do you mean? How?"  
  
Sage stares at the two creatures, attempting to decipher their meanings. He then glances at Kamaree, noticing her confusion. He quietly and wordlessly heads to the silvery protector, nearing enough to whisper in her ear.  
  
"What are they saying?" asks Sage, leaning toward her. He still watches White Blaze and White Fang, growls beginning to rumble from both creatures.  
  
"Just about what might happen, I am guessing. They will not allow me into their conversation. Strange, never has White Fang excluded me before. Hmm, he must be missing his home of the La-Ray Mountains. Yet, they are magical and wise, both White Blaze and White Fang. They should be respected," she replies, edging closer. "Oh! Sorry!" she apologizes, quickly leaning back as her shoulder clashes with his. A warm feeling travels through her body, yet she shivers without understanding. She turns her head away, blushing, while commenting, "you five have to shrink, you're too tall, you realize that?"  
  
"You need to grow," he replies, stepping from Kamaree awkwardly. His uneasiness of females is present and easily perceived. Yet, he tries his best to hide it and ignore it, feeling that speaking with this unusual stranger is more important.  
  
Suddenly, Kamaree steps back, turns, and then begins to run. She calls out to her companion, "Lumaree! We must depart!" The council is calling, and dread is beginning to invade their minds. None of them know what it is, but it chilled her to the bone. Doom is coming.  
  
"Sah lah," breathes White Fang, audible enough for only White Blaze. He gyrates on his hind legs and sprints forward, catching up easily with Kamaree.  
  
"Wait! I still need to ask you---" Sage yells, turning in the direction of Kamaree and Lumaree. He sighs after realizing that both girl and wolf have vanished. He does not say anything else. 


	3. Deceit

Remember that I don't own any of the characters of Ronin Warriors and places belonging to it. Yet Kamaree, Lumaree, Naki, and so on are mine and are not to be used without my permission. Pretty much, if maree (mar-IE) is in the name, then the character belongs to me. Also, the 'elden' language I created, so if it seems similar to any language you know, chill---it wasn't my fault! -coughs- Anyway--on with the story! :)  
  
.Deceit.  
  
Ryo heads back into the group, shaking his head with confusion. Ebony strands fall over his brow, covering his features. With a sigh, he sweeps the tresses from his sight. "That was strange." He does not remember anything that happened before, except the strange looking Dynasty soldier that somehow vanished. He then notices the large city block, and halts with awe. "Whoa-Guys, look!"  
  
The others, except Sage of Halo, intake the destruction of the buildings. They gasp, wondering how at one moment the buildings where perfect, and now almost completely razed down. Glass shimmers under streaks of lightning and the earth shudders from rumbles of thunder. Shallow streams of thick red liquid runs through the cracks and low places on the pavement. The creeks steam in the chilling air and emit a foul odor.  
  
"What is that?" wonders Cye out loud, motioning toward the streams.  
  
"Blood," Rowen replies after a moment's pause. He glances at the black sky above, hand over his stomach, trying to pass over nausea. He nearly fails, but manages to get his stomach under control.  
  
Cye turns from the sight, his face pale. He rubs his temple, large blue eyes closed. Sickness envelops him as well, nearly downing him. He waits a few seconds before daring to mutter anything. "Human?"  
  
"Ah think so."  
  
"Wait--what happened anyway?" interrupts Kento, even he trying to evade the gory image. "Did we fall asleep or something? 'Cause the last time I looked, nothing happened."  
  
"What do you mean?" asks Rowen. He frowns, tilting his head forward. "Why do Ah feel like we've forgotten somethin'?"  
  
"Yeah--I remember a Dynasty soldier, but that's it," adds Cye, scratching his head. "But what happened to it?"  
  
Kento shrugs, "Well, he's gone, and we're alive, so I guess that means he's dead-right?"  
  
Sage stares at the others, nearly unbelieving his ears. He narrows his violet eyes, frowning. "Don't you guys remember Kamaree?"  
  
"Kay-mar-ie? Who's that Sage? No one's here but us," inquires Ryo. He stares at Sage for a few moments, worrying slightly.  
  
Sage sighs, rubbing his temple with his fingers. "I guess you guys don't. Then why do I remember? Why?" He turns from the others, trying to figure out why he can remember the vanished girl and not the others.  
  
"Bud, I think you need help," Kento interrupts, clasping Sage's shoulder firmly. He grins, then moves away from his friend. "Don't sweat. A few nights in Las Vegas, and you'll be great. Umm-hey guys, can we get away from here?"  
  
"Yeah, come on guys, this place doesn't bode well. We gotta find Mia and Ully before any bucket heads can," agrees Ryo. He and the others begin to head away from the crumbled buildings and steaming creeks of blood.  
  
Sage grabs Ryo's arm, stopping him. "Ryo, don't you remember her? You seemed the most drawn to her."  
  
"To who, Sage?" Ryo replies, unable to hide his confusion and curiosity. Suddenly, the voice of a small boy and a girl catches his attention as he turns to face them. "Mia! Ully! We've been looking for you!"  
  
***  
  
"The council has begun. Lady Kamaree, Lord Lumaree, please present your testaments to the Sacred Counsel of Maraah," instructs an elder unicorn, Ruka. His mystical glow is blinding from his ancient age, yet his form is thin, and his horn and hooves dull silver also from age. His ancient bones creaked and cracked as he moved, thus he attempted to remain stationary as much as possible. He stands beside the Lord Naki, dwarfed by his height.  
  
Kamaree and Lumaree tilts their skulls forward, showing respect for the noble Maree that surrounds them. Kamaree lowers herself onto one knee, while Lumaree lowers his front half. Both rise at the same time. Lumaree begins the information first.  
  
"An old and new threat has invaded the mortal world, my friends, and again the Ronin Warriors have been sent to deal with this threat. Alas, they cannot handle this threat alone."  
  
"Our contacts believe that the darklord, Talpa, has combined his powers with the lord of the 9th dimension, Sulron, and is planning to take this world as their own."  
  
"Yet Lord Talpa has been deceived, for Lord Sulron wants this world as his own, and will not share willingly with Lord Talpa. Lord Talpa is not strong enough to defend himself against Lord Sulron."  
  
"That is why he allied himself with Lord Sulron, to finally defeat to Ronin Warriors, and conquer the mortal world and enslave the mortals within it."  
  
The fierce golden eyes of the Hawk Maree, Kalmir, focus upon Kamaree. He ruffles his silver tinted feathers trying to enlarge his appearance. Wings are swept open, beating once before his slender body trembles and feathers are settled. "Do you expect us to help defend these Ronin Warriors, Lady Kamaree?"  
  
"We must! They are all that stands between us being free or being slaves! We are also bound to help them! That is why we were created, Taymaree, to aid the Ronin Warriors in the battle against Talpa. Do you not remember this?"  
  
"And how do you expect us to do this? And why should we do this?" demands Lord Kalmir. He then laughs, "Child, we were created to battle Lord Sulron, not help them. You on the other hand, vowed to protect them. Not I. Remember that. So I ask you again, why should we aid them?"  
  
"Because if we don't, then all of us are doomed. The humans may be enslaved, but other creatures will die. Do you think Lord Sulron and Lord Talpa will allow you to live, Kalmir? Especially us! We can defeat them, and they know it--or at least Lord Sulron does, and he will not stop until we are all destroyed. Lord Kalmir, I do not know about you, but I do not want my children enslaved, and if I were you, I would not want my children destroyed. We may be immortal in life, but we still can die," retorts Kamaree.  
  
"You cannot be killed though, Kamaree! Your body has not produced a child; thus there is no Maree to replace you. Many of us has already had children to replace us, thus we can die."  
  
Kamaree sighs, closing her eyes. "And what good would having a child be to replace me, if my love is dead, and she is enslaved? Neither love nor child I have, but others have both."  
  
A large, silver buck strikes Kalmir with velvet antlers. "Silence, Lord Kalmir! She speaks the truth! And your defiance will only end in your death!" The buck changes his gaze to Kamaree. "My dear Lady Kamaree, many of us cannot leave our realm long enough to accompany you on this quest. Who do you choose to go?"  
  
"I will go myself," she replies, turning toward the buck. "I am the only few who will be immortal, even in death. Also, I have been with these warriors when they defeated Lord Talpa once before, even though they did not see me."  
  
"And they should not have seen you this time," interrupts Naki, stepping forward from the Maree ring. "And since I have taken you in, I will accompany and guide you. I have aided them with the Ancient One long ago."  
  
"I as well," adds White Fang. "For I have been with you since I was a pup, and your side will I stay. But you also will go, Kalmir, Taymaree, for your defiance against us."  
  
"Me!" he screams, mixing human language with hawk. "Why me?" With a grumble, he swoops from his perch in a pine to land upon Kamaree's gloved arm. "You better not drop me."  
  
"Trust me," responds Kamaree with a growl, "if I wanted to, I would, just to end your bitter tongue."  
  
Ruka nods slightly, sageful eyes closed tightly, inhaling deeply before speaking. He could feel the danger and darkness growing already. The law of the Maree would have to be defied just to save this world and the creatures in it. But it was something Ruka knew long ago that they had to do. "Then you four shall go. Are there are no others who will volunteer?"  
  
"I will go," replies a deep, gravely voice. The owner of the voice steps forward from the shadow of the woods, his gleaming ebony coat rippling with muscle at every step, his large form towering even the unicorns and buck. His hooves create an echo through the woods, and the lashing of his tail against hide creates the emotion of a whip. Evil and good surrounds him, just as coldness seems to swirl around him. He glances at Ruka with crimson tinted eyes. "I will see that this assignment is done correctly!"  
  
"Lord El Diablo Negro! Never to these meetings do you participate! Why come now?" demands Naki, stepping forward. He lowers his cranium, spiraled horn pointed toward the devil equine. He could never trust this creature, and it is a shock to them all that he would show.  
  
"Because," replies El Diablo Negro, ignoring the unicorn's hostile threat, "the Lady Kamaree needs a steed of strength and deceit, not a foolish King who should be in his kingdom."  
  
Matara Naki lunges forward; his teeth gritted with rage. "And a horse is more noble then a unicorn?"  
  
El Diablo Negro calmly turns his cranium, smirk revealed within eyes. He chuckles softly, amused by the unicorn's insult. "Did I say that, Naki? And if you fought me, even with that horn-do you expect to win?"  
  
Kamaree waves at Kalmir, and then to White Fang, "Come on, let's go, or we'll be here forever listening to these two argue."  
  
"I agree with that," grumbles White Fang, stepping up beside Kamaree. He glances back at the unicorn and horse, ice blue optics rolled. "Only difference with them is that one's white and has a horn."  
  
"And one's Satan's brood, don't forget that."  
  
"Never," responds White Fang, vanishing with Kamaree and Taymaree into the wood. All three are covered by swirling mists and vanish, leaving unicorn and horse to argue. 


	4. The Unknown

"Rocket Ride" is copyrighted by Ace Frehley. I accept no credit for the lyrics.   
  
.The Unknown.  
  
The dark wood spread across the broad hills and mountains in a blanket of emerald as far as the eye can see. Slivers of silver illumination spears through the canopy to glow upon the leaf and branch littered topography--dancing and swaying as the gentle wind waltzes through the deciduous trees. Bubbling brooks and spraying mists of waterfalls play to a cold symphony right as each individual mass begins its nocturnal serenade. A night behold, a glorious one. Beautiful it is to any eye to see, trained or not. It was home.  
  
Sage of Halo perches himself upon a broad rock upon the edge of a stream, watching the moon reflecting off its surface. Tiny streaks of platinum dart and here beneath its boundary, picking and salvaging along the mud and rocks for its feed. His legs fold close to his body as his arms drape over the bend knees, watching the surface with his own image and sub armor obscuring the perfect picture. More like a mirror actually. He watches as his own golden tresses flutter within the zephyr, the infamous lock over his right eye flicking enough to reveal both lavender irises. His handsome countenance remains rock-hard as does his impassive eyes.   
  
Despite the appearance of solitude and serenity, his soul ached for something. From something perhaps. The air about the forest suddenly electrifies with something he can't comprehend. An unknown force perhaps? Or else he has been out here far too long and his mind is playing tricks on him. Perhaps he shouldn't of had that extra slice of pizza for supper.   
  
Not one person, after all, is indestructible. Especially from the after effects of food.  
  
Suddenly he is yanked out of his thoughts as a slender and sleek doe shoves her way from the thick foliage toward his left--seeming to appear like an earthly spirit. Behind her, almost at her left thigh, follows a tiny fawn with its sienna coat still flecked with alabaster spots. Amazingly, a soft smile appears upon his lips at the innocence.  
  
"Hello there,' he breathes tenderly, a voice reserved for very few and what few there are walk on four legs. He watches softly like he could sense their feelings--his eyes watching their form, but luckily without the sensation of a predator.  
  
The mother doe halts by the edge of the brook, her front dainty hooves planted delicately within the mud coating the bank. Her long ears flick and she twists her head, placing her large and innocent mahogany eyes on him. Her black nose twitches slightly as she inhales his scent, curiously figuring him out. He did not smell like a for--but he didn't smell like her either. She reaches back toward her child with her slender neck bending elegantly, touching his own nose with her own. Then, with a snort, she bends low and proceeds to sip the cool and refreshing water.  
  
Then, closer then comfort, an eerie cry of a wolven pack leader shatters the serenity. It seems that even he has caught the scent of the mother and fawn. Growls can be heard in the distance, accompanied by vicious snarls. An argument perhaps. All in all, it did not sound well at all.  
  
'What a comforting thought,' Sage contemplates within his mind. 'Of all the times for this mother to come out of the brush, it had to be now. Terrific. But I can't let her be hurt. I can't!'  
  
He edges closer to the rock with his legs unfolding and swinging over. He nearly lowers himself with the rustle of leaves and five swift bodies emerging from it seems to freeze him in place. He watches with horror as the alpha male, a young wolf it seems with the integument of snow and the eyes of copper, leap within the middle of the creek. Strange and odd. The doe does not even budge.  
  
The leader glances at Sage with his own wisdom coating his youthful irises. A snort departs from his nostrils with his fur bristling. He then switches his vision toward the mother, his triangular lobes perking forward and his bushy tail swaying twice.   
  
"You're kidding me!?' he bursts out in a silence as the doe only nods her head like she understood the wolf's intentions, and reverses to reveal her youth. 'No, no! He'll eat him!'  
  
Unlike any animal ever before that Sage has ever met, the wolf glares at him. His lobes pin against his skull and his velvet lips pull away from his glistening fangs. The fur around his collar seems to elevate in size right as he takes a single step toward him. Sage merely stares back, still unable to move, and perhaps too astonished by this lupine's actions to do anything else but.  
  
Even stranger, the fawn steps down into the water and nudges the silver wolf's skull right beneath his ear. He glances up at him with tender eyes and a gentle cry escapes his throat. He nudges the wolf once more before reversing back onto land. The fawn edges close to his mother as though attempting to blend in with her.  
  
The doe lowers her head toward the alpha in what appears as silent speech. She glances calmly at the one of Light, mirth reflecting within her orbs. She then glances at the four other lupines lined upon the edge of the creek, each sitting and staring straight like silent vigils. She steps toward them and lowers her cranium--eyes closing and ears retracting against her crown. With that, the lead wolf mirrors her actions and then flees into the forest with his four other companions following him.  
  
"What's going on?" Sage whispers as he suddenly slides off the rock and lands rump bottom into the creek. Water gushes against him and the knife-like fish dart into their hiding places. His lavender eyes blink and he sighs, leaning against the rock behind him with a painful moan.   
  
"That's never happened before," he grumbles and attempts to stand up, only to slip on the film covered rocks and lands once more on his can. Can, indeed, with the sub armor.   
  
The fawn snorts what seems like a childish giggle. He then leaps into the creek, seeming to miss elegantly the smooth rocks littering the bed. He then flicks his tail twice against his rump as he nears the one of Halo. The fawn stretches out his tiny skull and nuzzles Sage against the cheek.  
  
He reaches up and strokes the youth's slender neck with an amused chuckle. 'You find this funny, don't you?' he inquires with an added laugh. 'I guess it would be from your perspective. But you are certainly an odd baby, aren't you?'  
  
The juvenile deer elevates his head and the moon flashes instantly on it. He blinks from the sudden illumination and reveals for an instant crystal blue irises. With another blink the strange color vanishes back to its original for his species. Then, with a lick upon Sage's cheek, he bounds off into the brush where he came from--his dam following.  
  
"That was very, very strange," mutters Sage, picking himself up from the creek. He slides onto the giant boulder behind him, once again returning to his meditation pose. He watches the distance with confusion dancing within his usually emotionless eyes, searching for an answer. No creatures on this earth has ever treated each other with such--respect? Dignity? Especially predators and pray.  
  
'It was like they knew each other. It was like they could talk to each other. I've never seen anything like this. I mean, I've seen nether spirits and I've seen souls. I've battled evil and visited realms beyond this one--But--It's very strange. And somehow it fits.'

"The gravity that used to hold you down--"  
  
"Oh God, not again!"  
  
"Take a rocket ride--"  
  
"Lord spare us!"  
  
"Baby wants it fast. Baby wants a blast--"  
  
"Dear, dear Kamaree, can you spare the "Rocket Ride" for once and let us continue our travels in peace?"  
  
Silence invades the forest as three human creatures strolls through it--a slender female reaching the height of nearly 5 foot 8 inches. Her long tresses of shimmering silver sway around her until the middle of her back, each strand free from any hold. A simple garment covers her torso, edges curving over her breasts, and ends at a flaring at mid thigh. Glinting boots appearing like platinum stretch to her knees and each side is decorated with a dagger in its silver sheath. The appearance of the first stage of the Kamaree. Upon her right sweeps a male human being a few inches taller then her, his gate relaxed to a near strut. A robe covers his form and what flesh is exposed glows like the moon--exactly like the other two with him. His pale hair seems to form a rough collar around him like a wolf--its edges ending near his shoulders. The third upon Kamaree's left towers her at nearly a foot in height, the mere fact nearly surpassed by his own aura. Mystery surrounds him, unearthly and drowning. He wears the same exact rose as the other male and his hair seems to swirl around his form to his back, seeming like the silky mane of an equine beast. Upon his forehead rests a light sky blue star.  
  
Kamaree frowns and a smirk plays upon her lips as she shifts her attention upon the one upon her left. "Would you rather me sing something else, Lord Naki?" she demands as the smirk twists into an evil grin.  
  
"Actually, I would prefer if you didn't sing anything, Lady Kamaree. Perhaps in that way ears can heal,' the Human-Unicorn king responds nonchalantly and waves lithely through a thick patch of brambles.   
  
Kamaree drops her jaw and stares at the earth, see too dodging the growth and pushing the other male away purposefully. Especially at his snickers. 'You know, years ago, I did happen to be one the best musicians this world had to offer!'  
  
"Yeah, but that's been over ten years ago! And you were a guitarist, not a vocalist. Even -you- admitted that you couldn't--how did you say it?--carry a tune in a bucket?" snorts Lumaree. He swings past a tree in enough time to avoid crashing into it. "But, but, your guitar skills were great. I mean, you wouldn't believe how many people out there now are trying to sound just like you! And look like you. It's kind of like your--"  
  
"White Fang, you might want to shut your trap before I shut it for you," snarls Kamaree and slapping the Human-Wolf upon his bicep.   
  
Lumaree contorts his face like he was brutally injured and grasps the place where she slugged him. "Oh my God! That's animal abuse! I am sooo calling animal control when we get home! Then we'll see what happens to the famous Miss Crystal Stratus of Acid Rock!"  
  
She rolls her eyes and shakes her crown. A deep sigh departs from her as she mocks, "Oh, I can see that! 'Yeah, hey, my mistress, you know that old guitarist--yeah, her!!! Crystal Stratus! I don't care if she vanished over a decade ago! She slapped me for--hello? Hello!? Damnit!"  
  
White Fang bursts out and nearly sinks to the ground. He clutches his stomach, doubled over in laughter as though her words were the most hilarious in existence! Yet it wasn't that exact comment that got him, it was the next.  
  
"And I just can't believe I called myself old."  
  
Naki sighs at the childish others and steps on forward. He glances back at the others coldly--thin lips parting to emit between, "Once you two have returned back to your senses, please feel free to contact me. I am sure Lord Kalmir and Lord El Diablo Negro has found and set up our camping location. If you find it necessary to complete your tasks and join us, I would be so honored and appreciate it. If you decide not to, then both of you please procreate as soon as possible so the Maree might have others that are more suited to being what they are and not petty children." His words soon depart as soon as he does, vanishing into the trees like an apparition--leaving silence in his wake.  
  
Kamaree blinks at the spot to where the leader of her kind vanished, his insult still seeming to spin upon the air. She smirks at such a stinging comment, adding her own, "Well, I'm glad to know that nothing has changed with him. I imagine he had no sense of humor when he was a foal either."  
  
"If he did, it vanished a long, long, long time ago," agrees White Fang. "And I mean long, too."  
  
"Long, long, long, long, loooooong time ago!" they both chorus together with chuckles. The fits of giggles soon erupt once more, indeed appearing 'unMaree' like and instead giving the illusion of two best friends chatting over ridiculous subjects. The usual of young adults.  
  
Soon, the laughing subdues and fades--forced chuckles rising and lowing. Breathes are exhaled later and guts are clutched. "Well, that was amusing," snorts one of them, both too unconscious enough to know exactly who. Besides, both woman and wolf are so close, it's almost like they knew what the other was thinking.  
  
"Well, you know White Fang, I think it might be time to explore this place and see what damage I can come up with, ya know? Besides, I'm sure Lord Naki and his unsense-of-humorless self can withstand having his famous triple daily speeches without me making fun of him."  
  
"Mentally of course."  
  
"Of course! Do you think I want impaled over and over again?"  
  
"Just about as much as I want sheered," the Wolf yelps wide eyed. Relaxing instantly afterwards, he clutches her on her shoulder and in his attempt of a horrible impression, adds, "I know it's a dangerous world out there, but you can make it and you can do it! You can reach that shinning star in the distance," his free hand mimicking his speech, "and bring to you and only you! You've got the spirit, now go out there, kiddo, and get it!!"  
  
Kamaree blinks once more and stares at him, her brows elevated and a meek laugh separating. "White Fang?"  
  
He dips low and his clenched fist nears her jaw. 'Yes, oh yes my darling, beautiful child? Speak to me like you have never spoken before!"  
  
"Don't quit your day job." With that response, she sweeps past him and enters the wood, leaving him to mutter to himself and finish his traveling toward the Maree campsite. 


	5. The Light

.The Light.  
  
'Was it a vision? Or was a real? A tall young woman standing upon the edge of a cliff, dressed in only silks of white and the pale moonlit--shimmering upon her long silver hair flowing elegantly around her. She seems to watch every detail of the sky like it told her everything she needed to know. She is beautiful, I can see it, even from behind. Her skin glows just like the moon, something unearthly. I don't know what I'm doing either, just standing and watching behind a tree. My heart's racing, I can feel it. I'm drawn to her and I don't even know why. God, I don't know what I'm gonna do! I make up my mind.  
  
'I step out from behind the tree and slowly approach her, watching. Perhaps she'll disappear on me, she seems so unreal and so distant, like a ghost or something. I try to stay silent as I can, but I know if she can't hear my footsteps, then she can hear my heart. It's pounding! I'm scared of her and I'm not. I can't explain it, not even to myself. I'm afraid of what she'll say. Or maybe I'm afraid of what she won't. What if she ignores me? Out of everything I've faced I don't think I can face that.  
  
'I reach my hand out and gently touch her shoulder. My sub armor covers me completely, but I can feel her smooth skin beneath as though it was gone. Her silks wrap around my arm and my body, drawing me closer with its own unquenched passion. It whispers to me that she's been waiting. Waiting for who, I ask it. She's been waiting for me is the only reply it gives. A gentle hand reaches over and rests upon my own and a shocking feeling rushes through it.  
  
''Welcome Sage of the Halo,' she greets me with an amused chuckle. She knows my name even though I never told her. Then, I feel that she knows more of me then just my name and I place my other hand over her own.  
  
''I'm glad to be here,' I reply to her softly and sincerely. 'I've been lookin' for you. I didn't think I'd find you.'   
  
'She only grips my lower hand and twists to face me so elegantly and so precise. It seems that we have practiced this movement over and over again. Her free hand, the left, reaches upwards and rests upon my cheek--diving beneath my hair and flicking it away from my eye. 'Remember, my dearest Sage, I will always be here for you, no matter what happens. I was made for you and you were made for me. It is a bond we cannot break--or are unwilling to break.'  
  
'With a chuckle, I bend down and brush my lips against her forehead--the same place I have kissed so many years before and it is the exact same. No aging. As the same for me. I straighten slowly and run my eyes over her face. Eighteen years old, she seemed and even I knew she was far older then that. 'I feared that with me gone for so long--'  
  
'She interrupts my excuse with her thumb sliding over my lips. A sparkle is within her light blue eyes as a warm grin crosses her cream lips. 'Worry not about that, Sage. I will wait as long as I must as I know you would do the same. We have all eternity if we choose. Remember that, my love.' She suddenly stops and her features suddenly sadden at a moment of thought. 'But first, you must learn to trust me. I would never lead you into danger and if I did, my life would I give for you over, and over again.'  
  
'I wrap my arms around her and pull her close to me. I rest my chin on the top of her head and close my own eyes. A sigh departs from me and I know what she means. I've felt it long ago and I thought the feelings were gone. Perhaps they are and perhaps they aren't. But I trust her with my heart. 'I don't give myself so willingly, you know that. I'm never gonna leave you and you know I can't. I love you. I always will.''  
  
Hidden behind a swift waterfall within the darkness of a small crevice, Sage Date awakens from his meditations with a shock. His eyes blink over and over and his head shakes vigorously. His mind reflects the images he just saw, not understanding it, and honestly not wishing too. After all, how great is it to become conscious while dreaming about being practically -married- to someone you don't even know?  
  
"What the Hell?" he grumbles loudly and runs his right hand through his wild tresses. 'No more pizza. Never."  
  
He twists to stretch his spine, glancing around the crevice nonchalantly. It was the same place he has visited many times before and luckily nothing else strange has happened tonight after the incident with the deer and wolves. Suddenly he pauses as a figure seems to glide from the trees upon his right, glowing brighter then the moon.  
  
Kamaree sigh softly as she slowly steps up to the stream, watching it as the smooth water swims down past her, its birth a waterfall toward her left. She watches the cascading spray of water, her eyes narrowing as the scent of a human being wafts toward her. She stares still, catching a glint of steel. Yet seeing nothing else and the scent being drowned, she relaxes.  
  
"You're working too hard, girlly,' she mutters as she lowers herself onto the bank. Her bare palm spreads over the cool surface and the tiny knife-like fish bob up to greet it. She giggles at their antics, crying out that food is what they desire and not to tease them with merely an extremity!  
  
"Oh, my apologies, my dear friends. I didn't realize I was offending you. I promise I'll bring something back from camp when we leave.' The fish suddenly dart toward the rocks in their fits of pouting. "I promise!" she laughs. The fish drift up toward the surface once more and then spread out in search for present food.  
  
She watches them, settling back onto her heels and sighing once more. She closes her eyes and tilts back her head, spreading her arms out wide in a stretch. She then relaxes and watches the waves, content to watch the water.  
  
Sage watches, unsure what to expect. Could this be another enemy sent to destroy both him and his friends? His eyes narrow as he crawls toward the pouring water to get a better look. Anything that can tell them who this is. He completely forgets about his vision, instead focusing his mind on what is to be done. In his worry, he accidentally knocks a stone and it plummets toward the water, bouncing off of rocks. 'Damn!'  
  
Instantly, Kamaree snaps her attention toward the sound. She wastes no time, not waiting to find out who is hiding within, she leaps upward and vanishes, twisting her form into an owl. In the middle of the air, fast enough to where hopefully the other cannot see, feathers adapt to her body and her skeleton merges into that of the bird. Her arms, now wings, flare open and catch the wind--flapping hard to propel her further into the sky. She swoops around the canopy of near trees and settles upon a branch, graciously hidden by the thick foliage.   
  
The young man quickly slides out of the tiny cave and dashes down the creek, careful not to slip on the rocks. With a leap he lands upon the right bank, searching the trees quickly and thoroughly. 'Come out!' he demands and is greeted by only eerie silence. No creature stirs within the night and the only sounds he can hear is his heartbeat and the creek.  
  
Caution plays within him, even as he calls upon his armor. "Armor of the Halo, Dao Chi!" he yells and a blinding light surrounds him, illuminating the very meandering stream valley. His words are muffled from the changing properties--emerald metal attaching itself onto him with the flow of glimmering light.  
  
It fades slowly, leaving the young man within his Mystical armor and the no-dachi cradled upon his shoulders. He twists to face the area where he last saw the glowing figure, searching for her through the trees.  
  
Yet the lady remains hidden, unable to see him as he cannot see her. She focuses to transform herself back into her human form. The feathers melt and return to her flesh--it glowing from the Maree formation. Swiftly her conformation adapts a human. Kneeling over, she yanks her daggers from its sheathes and the twin blade grow to matching swords. Her bare thumbs rub over the ivory surface, gripping it with ease and comfort. Many time she has called upon these swords and never have they failed her.  
  
"C'mon out and fight, you coward!" shouts Sage. He swings his dachi forward, pointing the tip toward the trees. "Face me!"  
  
Silent she remains, focusing upon his position with her sense, increased to the fullest possible. His scent lingers within her nostrils, it too human to be an enemy. Perhaps a fool who does not know of her. In fact, it was a familiar one as well, stored in her memory. But then, she could hear his heartbeat, it pounding hard against his chest as well as the adrenaline pumping through his veins. She could hear it, smell it, almost taste it. She scared him, oh fear lingered on him as well, but not as great as the majority has she faced. No, his fear is clouded by pride and by determination. This was certainly not a Cralon soldier. Perhaps, then, she'll only teach him a mild lesson.   
  
His eyes watch the forest around him, trying to sense her presence. Though not sure what he was looking for, his attempts end up in failure. He edges back, unaware of what he has challenged, but knowing if perhaps this world's survival is at stake, then it must be done. Then it happens.  
  
A silver streaks swoops down from the closest oak, landing on top of him. He stumbles back, nearly losing his balance. His sword drops from his hand right as the Kamaree leaps off of him and vanishes behind him. He regains his weapon instantly and gyrates to face her. He swings the no-dachi toward her, nearly ready to call out his Surekill Instead, she traps it with her twin swords and twists the tip toward the earth, digging it within. She then releases her weapons and back-flips easily away from him.  
  
"What?' he exclaims and tries to rip his weapon from the earth. Yet without his might, he can't even budge it not even and inch. "How?"  
  
"You wanted to fight me, now fight!" cries out Kamaree. "I doubt you'd be all talk and no walk, so step up, pretty boy, and accept your punishment!"   
  
She stands upon the same rock he feel from. She kicks a long branch toward him, its width and composition perfect for a boa. She smirks softly and reaches outward toward her swords. "Ru cha!" she demands. A single weapon quivers and yanks itself free of the topography. It zips toward her, handle outstretched, and forms into her palm. She twists it around in a single circle and it transforms instantly into nearly the twin boa of Halo's.  
  
He watches her, curious of the game she's playing. He then glances at his boa and grips it tightly. The wood seems to mold to his exact contour--the weight perfect for him. "What are you?"  
  
"The Lady Kamaree!" she cries in response and leaps from the titanic boulder. She drops toward Sage--her legs clamped tightly to her rear. Suddenly she stretches her arms forward and the middle of her weapon meets with his own cracking into the night.   
  
They trade blows and yet as Halo always prepares for the perfect strike, she easily avoids it, leaving him to steady himself and try again. She pushes him away with her heels planted against the earth, leaping backwards as he regains his composure. He twirls the stick above him and races toward her. Expecting at least a descent strike, he slides onto his legs and swirls the boa toward her ankles.   
  
Instantly she lunges upward, almost in slow motion. The tip of her instrument is plunged into the earth and she swings around on it and slams her right heel against his cheek. She ricochets instantly and lands upon her palms to flip back onto her feet. She yanks free her boa right at his counter attack, tripping her to the ground. Kamaree falls with a yelp and fetches her boa, instantly blocking her throat from her opponent's weapon.  
  
Drops of blood drip onto her own cheek, dribbling from the slash upon Sage's left cheek. Not wanting the chance of her escaping, he doesn't wipe it off and lets it fall. "You're good," he growls, "But it seems that I won."  
  
Kamaree only laughs softly, tilting her head and watching his slash ooze. "You may think you have, my dear Sage of Halo, but you're far from exceeding your expectations. You're lucky to get this far. But I must say, if you wanted to be on top, why didn't you ask?"  
  
He blinks and stares at her, his brow furrowing. "What?"  
  
With a smirk, she flips him over onto his back. She follows, landing on him and holding his weapon to his throat. She grins playfully and watches the boy with interest. "I'm sorry, child, but I've always preferred being the up one. You must forgive me--habits of old. But now that I have you under me, you will stop this and listen."  
  
"Who are you?" he only demands, regardless of her words. "-What- are you?"  
  
Ice blue eyes glance up at the heavens and then close with her head shaking afterwards. She then captures his countenance in her sight and laughs. "I will tell you everything you need to know if you promise to stop this. I only agreed to fight because I knew it'd please your testosterone rush greatly. Promise?"  
  
Sage glares at her and snorts, "Do I have a choice?"  
  
"You have many choices in life. You just happened to find a very horrible one. It is unwise to fight with a Maree of the 3rd level. You're lucky I took it easy on you. Though I must admit, you're quicker and stronger then you look. Perhaps there's more to that skinny body then just looks. And to answer your question, you do know me. You see me every time you close your eyes," she releases her hold on him and slides off his abdomen to kneel beside him. "As I see you. You've have known me for perhaps three or four years now and have known of my figure for at least one."  
  
Slowly Sage sits up and stares at her. He did know her, but the last time he seen her face to face, her appearance was different. It was more advance, if that made sense. 'I do know her! She's the one in my images and in my dreams! I should have known!' "You're Kamaree, aren't you?"  
  
She nods once though her interest lie upon the scratch across his cheek. "That I am and you're also hurt. Remove your helmet, please."  
  
"And why should I do that?"  
  
"Because if you don't I'll be sure to remove it myself and when that happens, other important parts of males seem to vanish, now remove it, Sage Date."  
  
The jade helmet is pulled from his crown with sweat drenched hair seeming to cling to it. He runs a hand through the moist and wild mess, trying to straighten it best possible. "I guess that's good enough of a reason," he admits impassively. He then runs the side of his hand across the bloody gash. He pulls his hand back and stares at the crimson stained armor. "How did you manage that?"  
  
"Easily. Now hold still before I have to think of another threat.' She reaches forward slowly and her bare right thumb slides directly over the wound. She leans forward suddenly and gasps. 'Out of practice, girlly. Out of practice.' She nearly collides with his chin right when she seems to regain her consciousness, sitting up and opening her glittering azure eyes. "There, finished."  
  
"What'd you do?" he demands and examines the place she had been. Only a tingling feeling remains within the skin and nothing else. He glances at his fingers, clean from any fresh blood. He frowns and shifts his sight onto Kamaree. "Did you heal me?"  
  
"I did." She stares up at the heavens with her eyes closing slowly. "I had to correct the wrong I did. You were only defending yourself and your friends. But I am not your enemy, Sage. I am your protector." Kamaree faces him, her eyes meeting his own. "I am the Ronin Warriors' silent protector. I have been with you since you gained your mystical armor and I have there to help you with every step of your journey. I was there when you defeated Lord Talpa and I was there to help you all regain your health afterwards. I know your names, you birth dates, and perhaps your deepest secrets and desires. I know what you fear and what you wish. Since you were of the age of fifteen I have been watching you and your friends. We have much to talk about, my dear friend, but this must wait until all five of you are together."  
  
Sage searches the ground as he tries to find a retort. The information is so startling. No one can know his history, his past, his desires! No one! Not even Rowen, his best friend, realizes half of them. He shakes his head slowly and rakes his fingers through his tresses right as he leans forward, almost curling into an upright fetal position.   
  
"Impossible. You're lying. Tell me one of my secrets."  
  
"If you so wish," she replies with a sigh. "Though if it must come down to this. I would rather not tell you what I know. It is a breech of privacy that the Maree must inroad to protect you and your friends."  
  
"The Maree. Tell me before I'll believe anything else you say!"  
  
"The most obvious. You are afraid of girls, the females of your kind. You were teased and taunted as a child by your sister--dressed as their personal living doll. They told you things which only made you run from fear. You can't believe that any woman will not harm you as your sisters have. Though they love you, you are they're brother, they were being as cruel as all children are. Yet their cruelty has warped your mind in believing all are the same. From any woman who finds interest, you flee from her with excuses forged from your fear. I do not find you one so easily frightened, but this vice nearly strips you of your intrepidness. You will not willingly release your fear into the open, yet already it has caused harm from your peers. Rowen Hashiba of the Strata has been your friend for years, and yet you both are thought of as a homosexual couple, are you not? Alas, despite other's misconceptions, Rowen has found himself a girl and you try your search regardless of your fear. And because if it, you attempt to give the illusion of being a "lady's man" even though you are far from. Indeed, you have lost your virginity many times over, but not one woman you have been with thus far has satisfied you. Anything else while we're talking about your personal life?"  
  
The Warrior remains in silence while letting her words seep in. Content to watch the ground still, his breaths have become shallow. It was too much information she knows. Too much and all private and something that no one should know. Especially a stranger he has only seen once except for in his visions. But his visions are only that and nothing else.  
  
"H-How do you know all this?"  
  
Kamaree sighs and reaches her right hand forward and cups his chin with her fingers. She turns his head to meet his eyes, meeting neither resistance or words. "You've told me," she tries to explain as she releases him. "You've whispered them in your dreams night after night. You have a heart, Halo, beating in that chest of yours and it's not completely frozen. Quite the opposite, actually. You appear so cold and so distant--nonchalant and impassive. No emotion seems to seep from any of your pours. Yet inside you are full of turmoil--and one of these days it will bust out. Understand?"  
  
He nods slightly, demanding gently, "What about the others?"  
  
"The others," she strands up suddenly and reaches out her hand. "Come with me, Sage."  
  
Like a child in the presence of a glorious being, he takes her hand and she helps him to his feet. Once she releases him, he merges back into his sub armor. He watches her closely, unable to explain the sudden feelings boiling within. Never before have they bothered him. Never.   
  
Kamaree takes his hand once more, leading him away from their battle place. She clicks her tongue twice and her weapons, the boa strewn to the earth, and the other sword, vanish and replace themselves within their sheaths. She then begins to stroll along the bank of the creek.   
  
"The others reveal their emotions more then you do, Sage Date. They don't have the types of fears you do and yet they don't have the same type of wisdom. It's true that Rowen Hashiba is the smartest of the five, but you carry something different and I can feel it. I am more drawn to you perhaps because of that. Also I pledged myself to help you five no matter the cost. No one needs as much help as you."  
  
"What about Rowen? Sometimes--"  
  
"His father mistreats him, yes, I know--"  
  
Sage snatches his hand from her grasp and twists her to face him. Rage glows within his lavender irises and his strong grip holds her in place. "You mean you knew that Rowen's abused and you didn't do a damn thing about it?"  
  
She tilts her head forward with a sigh. "There are only so many things I can do--"  
  
"Bullshit!" he growls. "Rowen's well-being is more important then my own problems! You could have helped him and saved him from all of that shit and instead you're worried about me!? I think you have your priorities wrong."  
  
"Do you know how many laws I have broken as is, Sage of the Halo, just to save him from what I could!? I don't bid by the same rules you do. Nearly I have ripped his father's throat out for it and in return he was healed and allowed to return to his duties. I've healed Rowen the best I can many times over without looking like he's withstanding such beatings, for I know it would only result in more! Neither do you understand the insanity his father is in right now and he does not honestly mean to hurt his own child. He can not help, but it is not a proper excuse either! Do not judge another before you know their circumstances, Sage. Rowen is as safe as I can get him and now even more so. I am on the same island as he is and I am the one who will keep away from that man," she retorts fiercely with her palms on his own shoulders, ready to push him away.  
  
"That's crap and I know better! Why should I believe you!?"  
  
"Because if you don't, you will end up the same way. I already have Rowen protected from it but I don't have you yet. You're trying your best not to hurt me as we speak and I can see it in your eyes. You know I do not lie but you cannot accept it as the truth either. I have lived much longer then you have, child. I have seen more things then any human can in a lifetime!"  
  
Sage eases his grip upon her shoulders with his whole entirety seeming to relax. The anger subdues enough that he demands, "Then teach me what I need to know." 


	6. The Air

.The Air.  
  
A sleek silver 2000 Grand Prix slides over the smooth, winding pavement of a country road leading into the large city beyond. The classic car hugs the curves with a style that no vehicle of 2020 A.D. can ever posses. It's the same with all vintage cars though, whether it was from 100 to 50 years ago. Behind the vinyl steering wheel drives a young, slender and tall man. His gorgeous cobalt eyes focus on the road a head and ignoring the swaying azure filament dangling between. His whole entire mane was the same color, cropped at a medium length to his skull. A short sleeved tee of cornflower blue flutters against his toned torso. It wrinkles around his loose blue jeans with his sitting position. A soft smile rests upon his lips.  
  
The youthful woman beside him at the same age of 20, jokes the best she can with him. She blows a wild curly strand of mixed blond and sienna hair from out of her dark amber orbs. She runs a hand over her tanned cheek to cover her cream tinted lips, stifling a giggle at one of his own jokes. She then runs a hand over her hair trapped within a pony tail--the center of it a light golden color while else seems the color of spice. Her own obsidian sleeveless top reflects the image of a black wolf with golden eyes with nearly the same emotion playing in her own. It folds over her blue jeans.  
  
"So, what were you doin' again todahy, Bekah?" wonders Rowen, stealing a glimpse of 'his girl' sitting beside him. His smile increases as he admires her looks--simplistic and yet radiant. He turns upon a curve, steering around it as though it was merely a straight away.   
  
Bekah shrugs briefly and stares out the windshield, tensing noticeably at the curve. Her paranoia of drivers and their habits never lessening--even with Rowen. And after earning her own license, the anxiety grew even worse.  
  
"Oh, nothing. The same old as usual. We had to do this and we had to do that and it was all annoying. But, I must admit that Starlite's getting better. That suggestion you gave the Vet really came in handy!"  
  
"Heh, well, Ah'm so glad Ah could help. Ah'd hate to see a sufferin' animal, ya know? Ah mean, how horrible would it be fowre ah wolf to loose'is teeth?" Rowen chuckles and leans toward the driver's door to avoid a collision with her fist.  
  
She slaps him across his upper limb and scowls darkly at him. "You very well know that a wolf can't survive without its teeth! How would you like it if your teeth were yanked out and you were forced to eat mush the rest of your life?"  
  
He pauses in silence with thought--answering with a slightly dreamy voice, "As long as Cyeh makes it, Ah don't careh." He swerves calmly to pass an unusual walker, his cerulean irises narrowing as he stares at her. "Tha's strange."  
  
"What is?" Bekah glances at him, rolling her eyes at his previous comment, and then turns her attention upon the stranger. Odd she was indeed, strolling calmly under the hot sun in three inch spiked heels, a mid-though obsidian leather skirt covering torn nylon hose of the same hue. A tight halter top molds to her form and a worn leather jacket of onyx is strewn across her right shoulder. The woman's streamline raven hair bounces with each step she takes, gleaming and glinting beneath the sun. "Yeah, that's really, really strange. I mean, she looks like she walked out of an old magazine."  
  
"Think we should pull overeh an' see if she needs help?" comments Rowen, still intent upon watching the figure in the rear view mirror. He frowns, noticing the ebony paint along her lips and the odd jewelry dangling from her. She looked like some rocker lost in time.  
  
Bekah rests against the soft granite seat and shakes her head. A smirk plays on her lips while she blurts, "Nah. Ryo'll get super pissed if we don't get those supplies. I just wish he'd get off his lazy ass and get it himself. He's got legs, why make us?"  
  
"Yeah, an' Ah dare you tell 'im that--oh shit!" his retorts are rudely interrupted as the engine suddenly sputters like there was extra fuel sucked into the combustion chambers and a knocking sound soon develops. Smoke rises from the mercury hood and he swings over onto the side.   
  
"Ah jus' had this thing fixed!" he cries and slams his fists against the smooth custom mahogany steering wheel in anger. He slams the door open and pulls himself out. He heads toward the hood, waving burning plastic scented air away from him. He places his hand on the lower portions of the hood and curses. "Damn it all! Ah jus' had this piece of shit in the garage two days ago! This is what Ah get fowre buying a cheap ass American cah!"  
  
Bekah snorts as she exit's the Grand Prix and stands beside him. She glares at the vehicle with disgust. "That's what you get for buying an old car, Rowen. Remember, you didn't live in Japan all your life to get that New Yorker accent you can't get rid of, right? Or that's what you keep telling me."  
  
"Yeah, well, who gives a flying fricken shit how long Ah lived in the United States if this piece of crap doesn't wohrk, right?" he grumbles to himself more then anyone as he retreats into the cockpit. He dips his tall form low enough to snake his arm under the dash and yank on the hood release. By the time he removes himself from the interior of his car, the strange woman is already in sight.  
  
"Hey!" she calls loudly and with a grin portrayed upon her dark lips. She quickly strolls up toward them, pausing once she spots Rowen watching her with a glare on his countenance. "Oh, whoa--hope I didn't spoil anything? So, what's the problem?"  
  
"What does it look like?" retorts Bekah standing in front of the Grand Prix. She lifts open the hood and the engine barfs gagging smoke into the sky.  
  
"I take it your car decided to die on you?" she laughs warmly and practically bounces toward where the young woman stands. "Here, let me take a look at that."  
  
Rowen sweeps up to stand beside the stranger, staring into the engine compartment at the foreign tangle of mess and wires. "Ah don' understand it! Ah jus' had it in the shop two days ago! An' these cahs ain't like the new ones. Ah can fix one of those, but not one of these!"  
  
"Well, you're in luck," chuckles the stranger. She searches the engine itself, noting where the valve covers are as well as the manifolds. She runs her hand along the ribbed plastic hose leading from the air filter and into the engine. Next she examines the coolant reservoir, noting it being a bit lower then the recommended amount, though that too can be easily explained. She swings in closer and takes a whiff of the smoke, noting it more like the stench of oil burning then plastic. "How overly convenient," she breathes to herself. "So he's thought of everything, huh?"  
  
"So, whatcha think?" inquires Rowen and rests his hands on top of the radiator cover. He quickly scans the ancient and grease covered emissions tags along the black steel surface.   
  
"She'll live to drive again, I promise, just let me tinker around here a bit," the woman explains with a flash of her white teeth. She again leans forward, examining each little section incase there was more then just burning oil. Or was it plastic. The scent keeps changing like an amateur auto technician was trying to sabotage the Prix.   
  
"So, what's you and your sister doing heading out to town? Don't you know there's going to be a storm brewing? Though I'm sure a strong, handsome man like can handle anything," she taunts seductively, "Though your sister might look like she needs some help. I'm sure a strong wind would blow her away."  
  
Bekah glares daggers at her, snarling with a lupine accent, "I am -not- his sister! I am his girlfriend!" She also glances up at the clear azure sky without even a hint of a cloud in sight. "And what storm are you talking about?"  
  
She immediately straightens and stares at the young woman with shock. "You're honestly his girlfriend? I'm so sorry! I thought for sure that you were his sister!" She leans back over and props her rear into a position where the leather skirt inches up.  
  
Rowen stares at her, entranced by her, even at her provocative gestures. Unaware of it, he's lurched out of the trance by his own coughing. He scratches the back of his head and turns to face toward the vehicle's trunk, sheepishly avoiding his girlfriend's glares. Never before was he so mesmerized by a complete stranger, especially in front of 'his girl'!  
  
"I hope you don't hold that against me, sir," continues the stranger in a charming lilt. "I mean, after all, I'd hate to see you so upset about the confusion. I hate seeing a man angry. It just makes me want to come over to him and comfort him any," she strokes the interior of the car like it was his own body, "way I can. After all, no man should suffer when he doesn't need to."  
  
"Are you gonna fix the damn car or not?" snarls Bekah at this intruder hitting on Rowen right in front of her! This thing would have to be taught a lesson if she didn't hurry and move on. Perhaps baring down on her as a wolf in the night would bring her to her senses!  
  
The stranger glances at her and then to the distance behind the car, swerving the miss a full bodied picture of the hood itself. "Oh yes!" she exclaims smoothly. "She's quite fixed! I'm sure she'd run for anyone now, including you, miss."  
  
Neither of them seem to notice the white wolf racing toward them, transforming with each step into a human male, which is fine with her. Much explaining would she have to do. She smirks slightly and straightens, lowering the hood with a rattling bang.   
  
"Thanks fowre fixin' it," comments Rowen, still watching her thoroughly. He grins widely, showing off each brilliant white tooth. He extends his right hand forward in a hand shake--and suddenly slips against the smooth surface of his car.  
  
The stranger lunges forward and catches him, pulling him toward her. "You better be more careful, sir," she chuckles gently and reaches upward to slide the dangling bang from his forehead. "You wouldn't exactly want to end up sprawled over the ground in desperate need of help, would you?"  
  
"N-N-No," he stutters and stares down wide eyed at her. He slowly reaches up to stroke her cheek, despite the angered comments from his girlfriend, but before he can touch her, she swings out of his arms and struts toward a growing figure in the distance.  
  
She glances back at Rowen and winks charmingly and ignoring the utter disgust plastered over Bekah's face. She then turns toward the young man strolling toward her with his hair in a wild frizz sort of like Sage's, only paler in color, and a pair of white shorts hung low around his hips, and picks up her speed.   
  
The guy wraps his arms around her as she nears him and holds her tightly against him. "What were you thinkin' babe? Goin' off on your own like that without tellin' me! You coulda got lost!"  
  
"I'm sorry, hun, but I just had to go on a walk," she apologizes softly, arching away from him to gaze within his sparkling blue eyes. "I promise I won't do it again. And besides, I had a very interesting experience helping someone fix his car."  
  
"I'm sure that's all you fixed," he snorts and glances at the couple near their Grand Prix. He grins widely as the man's girlfriend stomps over and slaps him hard against the arm to awaken him from his trance. He jumps and stares in shock at her before he crawls grudgingly back inside. A chuckle escapes White Fang's throat as he can hear the young woman's screams all the way over here. The platinum car zooms off and leaves both him and his partner basking in the fading afternoon sun.  
  
aerate  
  
Hours later the Grand Prix resumes it course on the abandoned highway, rounding the same curve it collapsed on. Yet instead of the same glorious sun it shimmered off of, rolling clouds threatening to pelt the earth swirls over the heavens and changes the entire scenery into an oppressive gloom. Rowen of Strata, alone in his classic car, hums to an oldie, Velvet Revolver's "Set Me Free".  
  
Rain begins to hammer the windshield in waves upon waves of nails, blurring the road from view. He sighs and switches on his wipers and then turns down the volume of the radio. He glances up from the light blue LSD faceplate, spotting standing in the middle of the road a young woman in silver.   
  
"Shit!" he gasps and slams on his brakes, swerving the car with the screaming of tires around her. But it's no use and the front bumper contacts her knees hard. The ricocheting sound of plastic meeting flesh vibrates off the high mountain walls on his left.   
  
Rowen groans and picks himself up from the steering wheel, groaning in pain. He feels his face with a shaking hand, wincing as his fingers slide over bleeding gashes that sting furiously. Another moan escapes as he sits up and scans the road in search of the thing he though he saw. And there she was, standing right in front of his Grand Prix like nothing had happened. Her arms crossing over her chest and a solemn expression upon her face.  
  
"Damn--" his words fade as he lurches the car door open and yanks himself out. He marches toward her leaving droplets of blood as a trail. "What in the Hell where you doin'!?" is added, his arms waving and an insane expression coating his features.  
  
The young woman only holds up a hand and halts him in his tracks. She steps up and covers his face with a single gloved hand. She watches him struggle beneath her grip, screaming out curses and threatening her with a voice never before possessed by him.  
  
"Silence, Rowen of Strata, before I tear your skull from your neck and toss it to you on a tarnished platter!" orders Kamaree vehemently. The jewel within the 3rd stage Kamaree crown flashes a warning in brilliant sanguine, shrieking that she would carry out her threat.  
  
He refuses to silence and only shouts more because of her threat, trying his best to strike her with anything--his fists, his feet, even his teeth if he could. But the tingling sensation pulsating through out his body seem to counteract all possible motion. Rowen does manage to clamp his palms around her slender wrist, squeezing with all the strength he can possess just to be released.  
  
"You aren't helping!" snaps Kamaree and rolls her misty covered eyes. Finished with healing the wounds coating his countenance, she shoves him back enough to catch him off guard and releas her.  
  
"Aaaaahhhhh!" yells Rowen, stumbling back toward the rocking surface.   
  
Before he slams into the hard wall, Kamaree reaches out and grabs his soaked shirt and yanks him toward her. She snakes her arms around his lean body and clutches him tightly to both balance him and attempt to soothe his anger.  
  
"Let go of me!" demands Rowen, once again struggling vainly. He glowers down at her until he catches her calm face and immediately eases for an incomprehensible reason. Eyelids droop over his sapphire eyes and his body seems to become a rag doll within her grip.  
  
Kamaree sighs and gently swipes the beads of rain from the young man's face so that he may not drowned. A smirk crosses her cream lips, wondering how it would look for her to carry him to a more comfortable and less wet place. After all, he is still taller then her even in her Maree form. How unfair.  
  
"Well, ready to rock 'n roll, pretty boy?" she grunts as she slides down low and thrusts her right arm under his knees. She lifts him up and holds him tight against her the best possible. She glances up at the heavens in praying to not meet anyone while she was strolling with the six foot something kid in her arms.  
  
"Thank God you aren't heavy," she mutters and saunters toward the rock wall. Yet she freezes and with a gasps, switches her attention toward the clouds. Her luminous azure eyes search the rolling mass of clouds for the thing she was feeling. It was there, hidden behind the storm and waiting for her.   
  
A hiss departs from her lips twisted around a foreign language, "Trayh truh treh tu trahyu trayh!"   
  
She steps back afterwards and is met with a piercing whistle echoing from the sky. She winces and leaps back right as a bolt of electricity, the color of blood, strikes the pavement. It shatters the asphalt and splinters it in two. The bridge vanishes from the destruction, crawling toward the Maree and her unconscious partner.  
  
Kamaree sighs softly, watching the young man dozing within her arms. "Well, you wanted to know who I am, and know I have to show you. Though I must admit this isn't gonna be easy for either one of us, hun."  
  
Her three inch platform boots crack against the surface as she races away from the dissolving hole, shifting the young Ronin onto her shoulders. A crunch follows and she glances back in time to watch the silver Grand Prix engulfed by the dissipating bridge and sink toward its bottomless gut. "Concentrate!" she growls to herself and snaps shut her irises, focusing on a form that would help both of them.  
  
"You can't help these fools, Kamaree!" hisses a serpent like voice in front of her. His voice drips with venom and slithers across the ground to freeze her in her tracks.  
  
"Sekment!" the Maree breathes, glaring at him with the intent of killing. Her lips curl as though revealing lupine fangs. "This was not your doing, I am assured! You have only the power to poison and not take down and entire bridge!"  
  
The warlord barks a sinister laugh and steps toward her with a rattle of his armor. He watches the young woman arrogantly while a malicious grin plays upon his lips. "Ah, but foolish Maree! Do you think I come alone--"  
  
"What, you're not alone? Can't you handle a poor little girl by yourself? Damn. And here I thought you Warlords were sooo strong!"  
  
"--and that I would be foolish enough to go against my Master's plans? Ha! Don't be a fool, Kamaree!"  
  
"You know, I'm called that more and more often. I think I'm going to get it tattooed to my forehead so everyone else knows too!" she snorts and steps back enough to feel the rhythmic flow of the dissolving bridge.   
  
"Your words do not humor me, Kamaree, and I am giving you a chance to--"  
  
"A chance at what? If you're gonna fight me, just c'mon and do it and shut your trap. I have better conversations with earthworms then what I'm having with you."  
  
"--to join us! With all our powers matched, no one can get in our way!"  
  
"And how many times did you practice this speech, Sekment? Five? Ten? Twenty? Yeah, if you can even count high enough to five--"  
  
The Warlord of Venom snarls and swipes one of his swords free, pointing at the smaller figure. "Do not mock us, Kamaree! You will not be able to defeat us! How well does the Ronin scum know that you were the one who helped them beat Lord Talpa the first time? If you join us then you'll be--"  
  
A smooth voice of false calm interrupts Sekment from behind Kamaree and Rowen, chuckling lightly at what perhaps he thought as entertaining. "Perhaps you don't understand the circumstances, Lady Kamaree. If you do not join us, you'll be killed--slaughtered--with the rest of the Ronin Warriors. It is a fate I personally would rather see abolished."  
  
"The only abolishment I would like to see, -Lord- Anubis, is you and your company," she retorts. Suddenly, though, she grins with a tranquil composure. She straightens and painlessly slides Rowen further down her back, getting him into a better position for her next performance. "But as you see, I can't stay and chat. After all, I have people to do and things to see. Chao!"  
  
She steps backwards right as both Warlords lunge forward to grab her. Easily she misses their traps, slipping right into the void that the bridge has finally eaten away. Both her and Rowen plummets toward the rocky earth below.   
  
Wind whistles past them, stinging and freezing visible flesh. The shredded ground grows intensely as each foot passes by--leaving then at 50 yards--40--30--The jagged boulders grow enormous and threatening, reach up--when all of a sudden gleaming white wings spread outward, sweeping a slender Pegasus over the mass of twisted steel and cracked, fallen asphalt.  
  
"That's more like it," breathes the Maree in the language of flying horses, beating her wings to keep both her and the boy aloft. The muscles in her back strain , unused to flying much less carrying weight. Her silver irises scan the broad expanse and the damage from the collapsing bridge fades as the forest looms beneath her--branches reaching upward to claim them as their own.  
  
Rain cascades from her in rivers, collapsing toward the ground. It seems into her feathers and weighs each wing down, making it even more difficult to fly. Her equine-like teeth grind together and twin "wolf teeth"--normally native to equine stallions only--dig into her gums. Crescent shaped lobes retract against a wet mop as grunts depart in rhythm to the beating wings.  
  
"You have to loose weight, Strata, if I am ever going to carry your fat ass again!" she squeals, pumping the lengthy appendages harder.  
  
The Pegasus-Human glances back as she enters a clearing, watching and waiting while she levitates for any sign of the two Warlords. Finding none, she slowly depresses toward the drenched pine needle littered ground. Her concaved skull lowers and is covered by the her wings. With a moan, she collapses into a heap with Rowen sprawled over her back.  
  
"Oh, right, you," she sighs and shifts to plop him right beside her. "You owe me one, Strata." Her broad wind arches over him to block out the rain like a blanket and scoots closer to provide warmth.  
  
"Do not tell your girlfriend or she'll have both our asses, babe."  
  
Rowen groans--cobalt eyes fluttering open and resting wearily on the Pegasus. "Wha'? Who? Oh, my head!"  
  
"Shh!" hisses Kamaree and nudges him with her tender muzzle. "Sleep now. We've both had enough of it today to drive us both nuts!"  
  
"Right--" 


	7. Twisted Ways

.Twisted Ways.  
  
Cye Mouri sits at the head of a huge mahogany stained table with eight wooden chairs of the same color surrounding it. A medium sized book is spread out before him, its dull pages reflecting black ink scribbled across it underneath the dining room lights. He flicks the right side surface of it with the lower end of his pen. Boredom seems to consume him no matter what he does. Even writing wasn't helping at the moment.  
  
"Ay'm going to bloody kill this thing," his British lilted voice grumbles with the opposite of his pacifistic ways. He stabs the notebook. "The whole entire class does not need to know what Ay' want to do afterwards."  
  
"Hey, buddy, what's up?" cheerfully calls Kento, swooping around the right side of the table. He brings a cola can up to his lips and takes a huge gulp, patting his muscular belly afterwards. "Teach gave you some homework, huh?"  
  
Cye turns his delicate navy irises up onto Kento which right now reflect the stressed and murderous glare that the majority of seniors nearing the end of their high school career develops. "Oh, you could say that again, Kento," he replies with a strained voice clearly warning his friend that with one more wrong move, he was going to be impaled with his pen. "The dreaded woman decided that just because we'll be out in two weeks automatically means that we get piles beyond piles of work to do. Any other questions, mate?"  
  
"Erm--" Kento only grins and backs away, his free hand waving. "Oh no, that's okay. I think there's something good on TV. Yeah--" He quickly turns and flees the dining room, swerving into the living room, nearly adjacent except for a wall in between.   
  
The springs groan as Kento plops onto the floral patterned couch. He snatches the remote control from a circular end table and clicks on the broad television. Images of a cartoon show up--a foolish black cat chasing a tiny yellow bird that always seems to get away--before he flips through the channels. And suddenly he lands on the news, flipping back to it when he passes it.  
  
"H-Hey guys!" he calls out loudly. "You gotta check this out!" He leans forward on the couch, examining the place that once used to be a bridge. His jaw nearly hit's the ground with his shock.  
  
"What is it?" demands Sage, slipping in right behind Cye. He turns his impassive lilac irises onto the screen and his emotionless features twisting into an unmistakable mask of worry.   
  
"Oh my!" breathes Cye and slowly sits down next to Kento. "Is that where Ay' think it is?"  
  
Kento nods wordlessly, transfixed by the flashing images of crumbled concrete, twisted steel, and streaks of burn marks plastered to large pieces. The shot then moves toward the bottom of the gully and halts on a tangled mess of a once beautiful classic car.  
  
"Ryo! Get in here!" snaps Sage until he sees the wreckage. His actions usually void of feeling, completely contradict its usual manner as he grasps a crimson plush chair beside him and sinks down in its softness. "That's Rowen's car!"  
  
"What is it?" yawns Ryo, emerging into the room following a rhythm of thumps down the stairs. He begins to slide his scarlet shift over his wild mane of tangle obsidian hair when he pauses, staring, too, at the T.V. "Oh Christ! That's Rowen's car!"   
  
"Oh my God!" breathes Kento, inching even closer. "Hey guys! Look!"  
  
The signs of the Warlords were everywhere from coating the pavement with acid burns and signs of burnt patches along the rock. Even the metal contorted and spread on the ground seems to be marked with signs of their enemy.  
  
"Warlords!" exclaims Cye airily. "But--Why?"  
  
'--was found just recently at the bottom of the gully," drones on the voice of the newscaster, standing on the left side of the bridge toward the city. "No eye witnesses were found at the scene and at the moment no one has come forth to testify. Luckily no one was found in the vehicle at the time but a search is going on through the forest to find any survivors. The chief of police doubt that there are any survivors--"  
  
"So if that means there wasn't anyone found--" adds Kento.  
  
"That means--"  
  
"What about Bekah?" interjects Sage smoothly. "I just got a call from her a couple of minutes ago. She did say that Rowen never came back to get here and I was just on my way--"  
  
Cye glances up at him with his brow arched over his curious shimmering eyes. He leans against the curved armrest of the couch toward Sage, inspecting him as though his comment were a filthy lie. "If you were speaking to her and she mention that Rowen didn't pick her up, mate, wouldn't you then expect something to happen to him? After all, it does sound rather fishy."  
  
Sage glowers at Cye with his usual icy calm. His golden tresses sway around his pale countenance and a heavy sigh departs from him. "She said that sometimes he heads off to his school. When he does that, he becomes so caught up in his work, he'll either forget or fall asleep. She figured something like that happened. I did ask her, Cye. I wondered myself."  
  
A look of apology floods the young Britain's face as he sinks back into the sofa. He watches the news, more to avoid Sage's cold glare more then anything else. His cheeks blush scarlet and his lips clutch tightly. Finally, after a moment of silence, he adds, "Sorry, Sage, Ay' honestly didn't mean anything by it. Ay've just--"  
  
"I know," interrupts Sage composed. "Don't worry about it, Cye. But, I now I have to find another way to pick Bekah up since the normal route has been destroyed." His impassive look switches over toward Ryo and he nods at the door, his long legs propelling him forth in a graceful sweep. "You can come with me, Ryo. I suppose we'll have to warn Mia too."  
  
"Right," the obsidian haired man nods curtly and follows Sage out the door. He glances back at the others to add, "You two stay here just incase Rowen comes back."  
  
"Sure Ryo."  
  
"Anything you say, pal."  
  
..  
  
The rain had ceased to plummet the earth early in the morning, leaving a hazy mist to crawl over the forest floor. Rivulets from the previous downfall still squirms its way toward bubbling creeks, singing beneath the dense fog and reflecting off of dripping branches. The only place that does not seem effected by the storm is a tiny round clearing, still hidden by sprawling canopies. A warm fire crackles within its middle and a figure within silver sits beside it, holding a wooden bowl, where else another figure rests on the ground, covered in a warm olive cloak.  
  
Kamaree glances over at Rowen, the back of his head the only part of him visible to her. She sighs and scans along an invisible sideways gash on his crown, healed over by her earlier in the morning. He would wake up with a thundering headache, that is for sure.   
  
"Brave soul," she mutters to herself and leans forward, switching her attention to a small obsidian glass pot dangling precariously over the fire. She had to chuckle, for the mortal wasn't going to exactly find the cooking pot--hanging by only a delicate set of twigs--exact fun. She gently stretches out her right hand and wraps her bare fingers around the glass spoon and stirs the sweet contents. The twigs tremble beneath the movement but do not give way.  
  
"W-What happened?' stutters a weak male voice and the lump beneath the cloak, the one named Rowen, slowly struggles to get up. He only moans, though, and manages to prop himself. A hand automatically snakes back toward the back of his head and rubs his scalp.   
  
"Have some breakfast, Rowen of Strata, and you will feel far better," urges Kamaree, spooning the fruit mixture into a spare bowl. She tops it off with a warm biscuit and digs a fork into it.   
  
Rowen turns toward her wide eyed, examining every trace from her 1st stage Kamaree uniform to the long platinum hair fluttering charmingly from the faint breeze. He accepts the bowl hesitantly and stares down at it gingerly. "Who are you an' why does my head hurt like Ah've been smacked by a tireh iron?"  
  
She winces as she remembers the vicious tear to his flesh, never noticing it the night before. She was more concerned about his staying alive through the entire ordeal that she neglected to check for any wounds he might of received. Which in return was great, except for the fact that when she woke up, he was paler then snow and barely breathing. "Well," she sighs as she tries to explain. "I am Kamaree and you, my friend, were bashed against the head by a piece of falling asphalt."  
  
"Kamaree?" he breathes and swirls the mixture of his breakfast around in the bowl. He stares at it, trying to piece together the mixture.  
  
"Eat, my dear boy, and then I will tell you all that you need to know and that you desire."  
  
Rowen carefully and gradually lifts the fork toward his lips with a meager amount of the fruit paste--appearing a bit like a mixed yogurt--and tastes a small portion of it. He waits, chewing the scanty amount, sampling each morsel of it. He then swallows and waits, seeing if it will hurt him anyway. After a few seconds, his stomach growling for me, he digs in, engulfing his meal as though he had nothing to eat in several weeks.   
  
Kamaree chuckles softly and fills up a smooth wooden mug with warm, blackberry tea sweetened by a minuscule amount of honey--of course donated by local bees. She hands the vessel over to him right as he finishes and he snatches it out of her hands and drains it. The tea dribbles down his chin though he doesn't notice, only aware enough to thrust the bowl back into her hands in demanding of more food. Readily she fills the container up to the brim with the berry and biscuit breakfast, handing it back to him right as he finishes with his tea.  
  
"Careful," she cautions peacefully. "If you eat and drink too quickly, it won't be your head that is the only thing hurting. I'm also sorry to say that I can't heal upset stomachs caused by engulfing food like a wolf as freely as I can other tribulations."  
  
He ignores her, it seems, and gobbles this bowl up until it is about a quarter full. Then he slows, breathing heavily, and stares at it. He grabs the mug, already refilled by the mysterious woman, and follows the meal with a few gulps. Wiping his mouth off on the back of his arm, he glances at Kamaree still bowed by the fire.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
She straightens at his question and yet still stares into the dying fire. She leisurely lowers the lids over her eyes before opening them once more. A serene smile curves upon her manila lips. "You know who I am," she replies nonchalantly. "You just can't remember right now. But you will. I know you were knocked severely on that skull of yours, but I'm assured that your brain cells are still in working order."  
  
"Great. So Ah know you only Ah cahn't remembeh you. Ah think you're crazy, woman," he snorts and takes another sip of his drink.  
  
Kamaree shrugs lightly and rises to dissemble the kettle and its stand. She lifts the obsidian glass pot from over the fire without as much as wincing. "It's not the worst I've been called to be honest. But you'll remember, like I said. It will come back in a snap and you won't believe that your forgot the first time, Rowen Hashiba," she remarks passively right as she lowers the glass pot a few yards away next to a narrow stream.   
  
Rowen smirks and rises obliviously to help her, gathering the bowls and the mugs. "And another thing: how do you know my name? You knew Ryo's too, didn't you? Wait--how did I know that?" He stops right behind her, frowning at his discovery.  
  
"Or else it'll come back slowly," she adds while taking the containers, interjecting a "thank you" while doing so. She spreads them out in even four quarter positions, appearing like a four point star. She stands back and then ambles toward the edge of the water, kneeling beside it. She reaches her cupped hands forward underneath the cool liquid and lifts it. She brings it to her lips and drinks in deeply. She then stands and glances down at the food covered bowls and pot for an instant.  
  
"Aren't you gonna clean that?" inquires Rowen, staring at the back of her head.  
  
"Nah. It'd be disrespectful. C'mon, Rowen, we need to go. Your friends will be worried about you, I suppose. Mind traveling by back? It'll be faster then if we both just walk."  
  
"Wha?" he begins to ask, but before he can, a startling white lean horse appears where once Kamaree stood. The equine twists toward him and slowly rambles up to him. She nudges his shoulder with a grin reflecting in her azure painted eyes. He reaches out a hand to stroke her head, breathlessly commenting, "So Ah wasn' dreamin' last night? You can change into animals? Like this Horse?"  
  
"Unicorn and Horse mix, actually," the Unicorn-Human corrects. She sidesteps away from him about a yard and lowers the front of her body low. "I figure the Horse, though not as calm, will have more endurance. The Unicorn is stronger though--"  
  
Rowen frowns and watches her, unable to move from his position. "Unicorns aren't real."  
  
"In fact, they are quite real as well as all the beings from legends and lore. There are so many out there hidden from mortals, that it's not a wonder no one believes anymore. Now, are we going or are you just going to stand there and gawk at me, looking for a horn you won't be able to see until you actually believe?" the last portion snapped along with the long whip-like tail, sprouting such long and fine filament from it that it seemed she had a Horse tail instead.  
  
He stumbles forward and awkwardly slides onto her back. He grabs her around the neck and clutches his legs as tightly as he can around her barrel. He watches the ground, his brilliant cerulean eyes staring as it passes quickly beneath him. After what seems like an hour, he becomes courageous enough to sit up straight on her, hands wrapped tightly in her mane cautiously.   
  
"Now, you wanted to know how I knew your name," she begins out of no where. "I know many things about you, Strata, and your friends. I know you were born in 2000 A.D., thus you are of twenty years old--still a child in most eyes. You're interested in some forms of history as well as astronomy, which I can foresee you doing well in. You're attending a certain college, which I cannot remember the name. You used to own a silver 2000 Grand Prix that you got because it was made on your birthday and because it was cheap, though you had absolutely no idea how to repair it,. You could have asked Sage Date and he, believe it or not, would be thrilled to look at it for you. He has more secrets surrounding him then the entire species of Dragons. Now, you're also dating a Rebekah and have been for the past three months. You hardly even talked to her while she was helping you during the raid from the Dynasty, though I can't blame you. Now, any other questions? Don't ask me the incantation to call upon your armor and if you demand your sure kill, I am sure to kill you," Kamaree explains while she strolls within a medium pace through out the forest. Her vibrant platinum hooves seen to barely touch the surface and it doesn't even leave a mark trailing behind her. Her narrow, slightly concaved skull bobs at every other beat.  
  
Rowen soaks up her information, surprised to be even hearing her attempts at explaining. He stares down at her rolling withers. He blinks a couple of times, the only movement he has besides the rocking of his body to her swaying walk. "H-How do you know all of this?"  
  
"Well," she starts once more, "I've been with you all since you first got your powers, believe it or not, I've been watching and helping you. It had to be kept a secret, naturally. You five already had enough to cope with much-less me suddenly exposing myself. That and it's forbidden by the Maree law." She glances back at him with her left eye, scanning him from his mid chest down, searching him incase he was becoming somnolent upon her. "The Maree law is very strict, unfortunately, and I have committed treason as is. But it's worth it, I believe. You all need to know that I've been around for so long. It's unfair to keep you in the dark."  
  
"That answers a lot," he remarks tensely. "So, if I'll get a straight answer, why don't you know my--erm---incantation or my sure kill? It can't be that hard. I mean the--eh--incantation is--"  
  
"Don't, Strata!" she interrupts him, shaking her long skull and ruffling the shimmering mane sloping over the median of her nape. She stretches out underneath of him, enough that her smooth ivory teeth graze upon her curved chest.  
  
"Why not?" demands Rowen, clutching her tightly as she stretches, sure that he'll slide of at any moment.  
  
The Unicorn-Human sighs softly and skirts a gigantic bush of thorns--her tail snapping toward her right as the delicate strands become tangled in the mess. She pauses and reaches back with the tip of her long spiraled horn and taps the jagged branches--releasing the captured filament easily. "Why?" she beings to answer as she continues forward. "It's rumored by the Maree council that he or she who is directly linked willingly with the Ronins, if he or she is to say their incantations then that person will develop the specific Ronin's power and become one with him. Meaning bodies and powers are combined."  
  
Rowen remains silent in the few moments it takes him to piece her answer together. Then, with a snorting laugh, he bursts, 'You gotta be kiddin' me."  
  
"I assure you if I was then I would be laughing right a long with you. But I'm not thus the truth I tell you. But then, as I have mentioned, it is nothing but theory--one I prefer not tempting," is clarified right as she stumbles upon the edge of the wood.   
  
A broad lake glittering under the afternoon sun spreads out before them with a giant house nestling yards from its edge. A oval looking white vehicle vanishes toward the front of it, its glass glinting wildly. There at the moment, the Kamaree remains still, watching the scene gingerly. Her crescent lobes perk forward, listening to each little sound even at that distance.  
  
"Apparently a couple of your friends are home along with your girlfriend. Sage Date of the Halo and Ryo Sanada of the Wildfire, I presume are the two males. Your dear girl I only know as Bekah--" she pauses and sneezes, thrusting her head toward her hooves. "And she stinks of unkempt wolves. How disgusting!"  
  
Rowen remains silent, watching at the far distance, his eyes squinted just to see what she relays to him. Even at her outburst he doesn't speak, soaking up the information she gave previous to this. He doesn't fully remember, but bits and pieces flood his mind of previous events and that over all keeps his mouth shut.  
  
"Well. Shall we be off?" she mumbles and twists toward her left, trotting along the edge of the lake and remaining hidden within the woods. She watches both the earth and the distant house--leaping elegantly over a fallen log to Rowen's yelp and noticing at the same time the discussion held within the structure. A curse is muttered under her voice and she picks up speed, sliding into a smooth canter.  
  
"Ahh! What's up with the speed, Kamaree?" demands Rowen, clutching her neck once more. He nearly cuts off her breath without realizing it, unable to his with face buried within her thick mane.  
  
"Maybe," she gasps, "if you left me breath, I can tell you!"  
  
He loosens up on her and mutters, 'Sorry."  
  
"That's better. Now if you sit up and lean back, squeeze as much as you can with your thighs, not your knees, and hold on as tight as possible into my mane, you'll be fine." She leaps over another crumbling log, dashing with feathered hooves over the leave strewn topography. "Now, to answer you, your friends are having a fit trying to find you. They are exceptionally worried and they are going to be irrational enough to--" she grunts as she slides over a moist bed of leaves covering thick mud, yet she instantly regains her footing and treks on, "--challenge the Dark Warlords."  
  
"We've beat them befohre, so it's not like we cahn't do it again, rihgt?" argues Rowen in between breaths. He winces as his leg muscles begin to strain from the pressure applied for only God knows how long.  
  
A chuckle escapes from the Unicorn-Human's throat and with a leap across a wide creek, she slows her pace down while nearing the Ronin's home. "You're over your heads with this battle, Strata. It's not going to be as easy as you think--"  
  
"Yah, an' the last battle was a thrill."  
  
"You know, if the Ronins didn't need you, I'd buck you off right in the middle of the lake and pray that a Zulagin would eat you slooowly. But anyway, since Zulagins are only native to--erm--the Amazon, I doubt there'd be any in this particular lake."  
  
Rowen blinks and gawks at her bobbing skull with confusion, unaware that her fast walk made it far more comfortable to sit on her back. Sub armor probably would have helped a lot in this department too. "What in the Hell is a Zulagin?"  
  
"Yowr mothah," she retorts in his same Bronx influence. "But, anyway, there are more forces dealing with this round then ever before, so you'll just have to trust--"  
  
Immediately she halts, nearly throwing poor Rowen into a tree. He yanks onto her mane and stares at her while she prances beneath him- her hind swaying toward her left and her long plumed tail snaking vigorously. Her head bounces and shakes, nearly whacking him in the nose, but her mane manages to slash him across the face, stinging horribly.  
  
"What's wrong?" he growls and yanks her rocking tresses into a more non-lethal weapon.  
  
"I smell a tiger," is her automatic response. Her forelegs seem to spring from the ground right as she twists toward the right--her left side nearly colliding with the nearest tree. She pauses, alert, and watches the house now in perfect view, right behind it in fact, though still hidden within the woods. Her entirety trembles and quivers, jumping to each sound she hears.  
  
"Yeah. Ryo has a tigeh, you should know that, rihgt? So whadda 'fraid of?" he sighs with frustration, nearly ready to slam his heels into her sides.  
  
"Once," she whispers, "you are attacked, dragged down and eaten alive by a tiger who has no respect for any Unicorn alive or Maree, for that matter, you'll understand. Unicorns are -not- prey beings. They don't have the same chemicals that counteract death like a prey animal does." But with her own sigh, she marches on with more of a lookout then ever, leaving Rowen to think in silence.  
  
Finally, both Unicorn-Human and Ronin Warrior slide out from under the shade of the trees and waltz into the glowing sun. The Unicorn carefully treads up toward the middle of the yard, scrutinizing each little portion of it--testing the air of both scent and sound. Yet she only hears the rambles within the structure and the mumblings of the mortal upon her back.  
  
Rowen, once she halts, slides off her back and stumbles up toward her head, rubbing his thighs. Pain reflects on his face and a groan surfaces at each tiny movement. "Thanks fowr the ride, Kamaree. It'll be an experiences Ah'll neveh forget. In fact," he grunts as he pulls his jeans from personal places chafed, "Ah'll be sure never to ride a howrse for the rest of my life!"  
  
Kamaree laughs, louder then expected, and the vibrating call echoes through the yard and entering, obliviously, into the house. She reverses imperceptibly with her tail flicking carelessly against her hock. "It has been fun, I must admit, Strata. It's not often that I get to carry such excellent company back home. It's also an excellent adventure--"  
  
A feminine voice shrieking, "Rowen!! Oh God, Rowen!! There you are! I've been so worried!" cuts Kamaree off. The young woman known as Rowen's girlfriend, Rebekah, comes streaking down and clamps herself around the tall boy, barely noticing the white equine beside him.  
  
The others stream out from the house after her, Ryo, Cye, Kento, Sage, Mia, and the twelve year old Ully. Yet, unlike Bekah, they halt as soon as they see the pure alabaster creature standing startled in the back yard.  
  
"Oh my God," breathes Cye, mystified. "Where'd she come from?" While the others remain frozen where they are, the Brit eases his way up toward her curiously. Never before has he seen any creature look like her before. Never.   
  
The others soon begin to follow Cye, also intrigued by her. Yet Sage is the only one to remain where he is, watching her and staring as though he knew her. His lavender eyes narrow and he inspects each little detail of her.  
  
"I know who you are," he exhales quietly. "We've met before, haven't we?"  
  
A white figure beside him catches his attention and he glances down at White Blaze. His left hand comes to rest upon the tiger's broad skull, stroking the fine integument underneath of it. "Odd, isn't she?" White Blaze only focuses his sienna eyes upon the human and growls.  
  
Kamaree shies from the gathering crowd, craning her cranium toward the terra beneath her. The crystalline horn aims toward the closest one, happening to be Cye. Her diamond-like hooves slide against the emerald turf. She squeals loudly right as the human places his hand delicately upon her muzzle. She seems to relax slightly, flicking her lobes in his direction.  
  
"Aren't you a pretty horse," comforts Cye tenderly, of course unable to see her horn and thus getting himself into trouble.  
  
'A horse!?' bellows Kamaree mentally, filling with arrogant pride of the Unicorn race. 'A mere horse!? I think not child! No horse alive will ever conform to a Unicorn!' She swings her head toward the boy, nearly knocking him over, as she suddenly sprints off toward the forest.  
  
In a flash, White Blaze bounds in front of her and halts. He growls, crouched forward and waits for her to slide to a stop. His lips peel back to reveal his fangs and a snarl echoes from his throat. His burgundy eyes burn with his promise and his passion.  
  
Yet the Unicorn-Human, in fear and shock, slides against the moist ground barely a foot from him. Her muscles tense within her hind quarters and she lifts her front portions form the earth--pawing the air viciously. A scream is forced from her , seeming to gleam under the sun as does she. She lands and strikes the earth fiercely, this time leaving deep gashes in it.   
  
'What do you want from me, tiger!? Have I already not aided one of your kind only to be struck from behind to bleed to death on the ground? Do you know what immortal laws are broken when a mortal kills one such as a Unicorn?' she declares mentally.  
  
'First off, I want you to calm down,' growls White Blaze with the same communication. 'Second of off, that was not me who attacked you. White Fang--yes, White Fang, I do know him--told me of your attack. I apologize for it. No tiger in his or her right mind would attack a Maree. She, on the other hand, must have been beyond desperate.'  
  
'Desperate? Desperate!? She broke the scared laws! She could have eaten me if she needed it, but for the Matara sake, at least of allowed me into a prey animal form! Do you know how much pain it is to suffer? What it is like to be fully aware and feel each fang sink deeper into flesh? Any Maree over the 3rd Stage can tell you well enough!'  
  
'Relax, Kamaree,' demands the tiger calmly, almost sounding exactly like Sage. 'You are over reacting. I can understand your sense of fear and your memories. No, a Unicorn is not meant to be eaten and she did wrong by eating you in this stage. The previous two would not result in the same pain. She did not understand that. After all, she was raised without the wisdom.'  
  
She screeches and rears once more, her visage waving like a snaking. Her teeth, sharper then a horse's, lashes out toward the tiger when she lands--oblivious to the frightened stares upon her. The whip-like tail lashes against her barrel and hocks wildly. 'You speak of me to relax when you are still in pouncing position and your teeth bared as though ready to sink into my neck!? Only a fool would speak of peace and act against it!'  
  
White Blaze swiftly lowers himself upon his haunches and his long tail wrapping around his front paws. Carefully his lips fold over his fangs and he relaxes all signs of aggression. He watches her softly though sagely. 'Please, Kamaree, the instinct of the horse you mixed with the Unicorn is beginning to take over your instincts. I don't fully comprehend why you would do such a thing, for the Unicorn is over all a better transporter.'  
  
With a gentle sigh, what thickness appears upon the Unicorn-Human seems to vanish, leaving a slender and lithe creature of nearly 15 hands at the withers. Her head narrows further and concaves like an Arabian's--though with a delicate structure and more refined then any horse. Shimmering orbs widen and color fully to a brilliant sapphire as her tail grows longer to the point that it must curl up or else drag over the ground. Feathers, though already covering the lower portion of her hooves, seem to sprout from her shoulder and haunches downward. Amazingly, though, to even non-believers, her horn reveals itself like spiraling crystal, shimmering and leading down to a silver star nestled beneath it.  
  
'This you prefer?' inquires Kamaree calmly. 'If I added horse to the mixture then the horse would become invisible to those who do not believe.' She pauses and swerves her cranium back, set upon an unnaturally long and curving nape, and glances back at the mortals. 'As you see, they see what I am now and they cannot comprehend what they are viewing. Many un-normal things have they witnessed and they cannot believe that anything of my sort would exist.' She switches her attention upon the tiger below her, all traces of the anxiety vanished. 'Now I ask why you decided to cease my trek into the forest and away from these children? What personal gain could there be with me staying here?'  
  
White Blaze watches her for a few moments of silence as he words together his string of thoughts. 'Simply,' he starts after he has concluded what it is he wants to say, 'that perhaps it would be easier if you refreshed their memories at the same time instead of this plan of visiting each one by one? You can also admit to what you came out into the open for and warn them of the upcoming danger.'  
  
'I have thought of it,' she agrees. 'Alas, I also want to see how each are in their own environments without one another. I desired to test them for how pure their hearts truly are. Already they have sacrificed much during the battle with the Dynasty. I wish to see what has happened to them since that time. Understand?'  
  
'Indeed I do. Sage of the Halo already knows who you are though, clearly. Your scent still lingers on his armor like a sweetened perfume. Rowen of the Strata is piecing together who you are, though in the unfortunate circumstances, you did not have a chance to witness him in his natural way. The others, now that they have seen you, will be more cautious. Already, if you glance back at them and see for yourself, believe you are an enemy. It is best that you switch their train of thought.'  
  
The Maree slowly circles around the tiger and he mirrors her movement to where she is facing the Ronins and he is toward the wood. To his puzzlement, she lays down before him calmly, adding, 'I agree.'  
  
With a silent chuckle the tiger leans forward and nuzzles the cheek of a human woman sitting before him. She reaches a bare hand upward and strokes his soft fur tenderly, looking him over with quiet azure eyes.  
  
"Shall we begin?" 


End file.
